


Reversal of Fate

by nightmares06



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Amnesia, Curses, Fae & Fairies, Gen, Shrinking, Tiny!Sam, Witchcraft, Witches, size!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 06:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 39,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2338484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightmares06/pseuds/nightmares06
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a missing persons case in PA, Sam finds more than he bargained for. In the meantime, Dean has to find a way to get his brother back to normal. (size!fic) Story takes place after Season 6 Episode 14 Mannequin 3: The Reckoning</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Investigation

**_Jersey Shore, PA_**

The door to the rundown house creaked open slowly. Dean peered around the edge of the door, gun at the ready. Once he decided the coast was clear he motioned for his brother to follow. Sam slipped in and glanced over to Dean, arching his eyebrows. "So, you're sure that this was the last house the vic was seen in?" he whispered.  

"Yeah, of course I am, Sammy!" Dean snapped. "I know how to do my damn job. Friends had him out here on a dare.House has been abandoned for about 15 years. Last owners moved out real fast when they lost their father. Craig here is lucky victim number three to disappear in the house this month."

"So, possible angry spirit?" Sam stepped over fallen chairs in the entryway. "Did their story make it sound like the father died ugly?"

"Not sure yet, couldn't get a clear story from the family. They didn't seem to take kindly to any questions about him, so there's a good chance something happened there that no one wants to remember." Dean lowered his gun down. "So maybe we'll find some new information here." He cocked an eyebrow at Sam. "You take the second floor, I'll take the first, meet back here in half an hour."

They split up. Sam went up the stairs as softly as possible, not wanting to alert anything to his presence. He headed for the master bedroom first, hoping that there would be something in there that would shed some light on the mystery they had found. He slowly pushed open the door, scanning the room for any danger before entering. When on a hunt, there was no such thing as too careful.

His spidey senses were on red alert. He kept seeing movement from the corner of his eyes, like there was something there, but when he looked in the direction it came from, there was nothing there. Sam could feel the hair on his arms stand on end. It felt like he was being watched.

There hadn't been much left in the house when the previous family moved out and the master bedroom was no exception. Inside the room, he found a decaying bedframe that no longer had a mattress, a desk crammed against the corner of the wall and a few faded pieces of paper strewn on the floor. The way they were spread on the floor looked like they had been shoved angrily from the desk and left there.

Boots thumping against the floor, Sam bent over and picked up a few of the papers, leafing through. They were... medical records? He flipped through quickly. Bills, hospital visits, doctors notes... it seemed like the family had spent most of their last year going from hospital to hospital. The last paper in the pile Sam had was a handwritten note to the mother in the family.

_Mrs. Smith,_

_We have exhausted our options for treatment for Bill. Please understand that no one wants to help your husband more than me, but there are times that we have to accept the inevitable. Your husband has been an inspiration to us all with his unwavering dedication and love for his family. Please, let us help you. Call me when you get this. We are here for you in this time of sorrow._

_Doctor Robertson_

"Huh," Sam muttered. Dying from cancer wasn't exactly vengeful spirit material. Something wasn't adding up about this whole situation... Seemed to him like the family took the father’s death badly. Probably moved out to get away from the reminders of him in every shadow. Standing back up, he tucked the doctor's note into one of the inside pockets of his jacket.

The next room seemed to be the family office. He found more bills spread out over a decaying desk left in the corner. The family had apparently jumped from hospital to hospital, based on the variety of paperwork. They had been in search of answers no one could give them. Always trying to find that pot of gold waiting for them at the end of the rainbow, for a hope that they had never found.

Going through the drawers, he also found a crumpled up death certificate, tear stains causing the ink to blot on some parts. He smoothed the wrinkles gently with his hand. It had the father listed as losing his long battle with cancer on February 13th, 1996. Looking over the other papers that were lying around, he decided that they must have moved out shortly after. None of the bills or receipts he had found so far had dates past March 1996.

So, thus far all they had was a death caused by natural causes in a house where three people had vanished inside of a month. It couldn't be a vengeful spirit causing the disappearances. He frowned thoughtfully at the room, eyebrows furrowed. "So why are people vanishing here?"

* * *

Coming back down the stairs after giving the top floor a good once over, Sam found his brother in the kitchen, bent over some scattered papers near the basement door. "Find anything good?"

Dean grunted up at him. "Just some medical paperwork, you?"

Sam stepped forward and handed him the letter and the death certificate he'd found. "Same. Looks like Dad here died from cancer." He nodded to the papers Dean was sitting near. "The latest date I found was in March of 96, so they definitely moved out 15 years ago."

"Huh," Dean took the papers, scanning through them quickly. "Something just isn't adding up here with these disappearances. Unless there's something we're missing, it can't be a vengeful spirit."

"Tell me about it." Sam crossed his arms, looking over the paperwork again. "Any ideas what else it could be?"

"Well, we haven't seen any dark doubles walking around, so chances are shapeshifter is out of the question. And no grave robberies, so ghouls most likely aren't in town." Dean rubbed his head, looking frustrated. "We need more information for this."

Sam nodded to the closed door behind Dean. "Been down to the basement yet?"

"Nope." Dean smacked his jeans and pushed himself up to a standing position. "Figured we'd take that tour together, Sammy."

Sam nudged open the door with his boot until it was wide enough for Dean to slip into. Dean pulled out his flashlight, shining it down the stairs in front of him. Sam followed Dean down the stairs slowly, at the ready for anything. He kept his hand on the silver knife he had with him as a precaution.

Dean reached the bottom of the stairs. He found a light switch and flicked it up. Nothing happened. "Super," he muttered to himself.

"The town probably cut the power to this place years ago, since there's no one here to pay the electric bills anymore." Sam said, meeting Dean at the bottom of the stairs. He put his blade back in his jacket when he didn't see any apparent threats. He might need both hands searching through the basement.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Dean muttered, shining the flashlight to the end of the basement. "Never hurts to give it the good ole' college try."

Boxes that were slowly deteriorating came into view when the beam of the flashlight passed over them. Half of the boxes had a long, thin chain casually draped across them. A thin layer of dust covered everything in the room, small spider webs wafting from the breeze that came in with Sam and Dean. The light played over a few dusty mirrors in the corner, reflecting back at the brothers, and illuminating a table propped against the opposite wall. Sam noticed a few dark holes in the wall next to a massive mirror leaning against the wall.

"Hey, can you shine the light over there?" Sam motioned towards the mirror. "Getting a weird vibe from those holes."

"Sure," Dean walked towards that side of the basement, keeping the flashlight trained on the wall. The darkness in the hole seemed even darker now, with the light illuminating everything around it, shadows lengthening ominously.

Sam examined the hole next to his brother. "Looks like it keeps going, kind of like a tunnel." He leaned down to peer into the hole briefly. For a second he thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Once again, there was nothing there when he peered closer. "Did you see that?"

"What?" Dean pointed the light in the direction his brother indicated. It played over the boxes, making the shadows dance on the walls. "Nothing's there."

"I'm getting this weird feeling like we're being watched." Sam leaned over to the hole in the wall, reaching toward it. "I've been getting it the whole time in this house." Out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement behind the edge of the mirror. Something small ducked out of sight when his hand came close. "What the hell... "

Sam’s vision was overcome suddenly by a bright wave of light, and a commanding voice that sounded like it came from far off shouting **_"Horreat!"_** Darkness swiftly overcame the light and Sam felt himself collapsing onto the ground, consciousness fading rapidly as his brother crumpled next to him with a thud.


	2. Discovery and Capture

Head swimming, Sam moaned as he slowly sat up. "What the hell..." He looked up at his surroundings, unable to remember what he'd been doing before he'd been knocked out. A dark column of wood rose above his head, leaning against the immense cliff he was lying next to, stretching up into the darkness above. Enormous, brown, monolithic structures stretched away in the other direction. A massive light was shining where Sam was standing, casting a huge pool of light around him. He could hear excited shouting from behind the wood column to the left, and slowly turned that direction, wincing at the pain that shot through his head at the movement. He saw two men running toward him from the dark and tensed as they got closer.

"You said it works on everybody!" Snapped the younger of the two. He had short brown hair and eyes that were so dark they were almost black.

"It's never failed before, there must be something wrong with that one. Something different." Hissed the older man, long grey hair falling across his eyes. He skid to a halt about ten feet away from Sam. "We don't have time to argue about this now. Grab him so we can go!"

The younger one ran to Sam's side, grabbing hold of his arm and yanking Sam up forcefully. "Come on, we need to get out of here. Now!"

Sam groaned as he was lifted up. "What are you talking about? What's going on here? I was just..." He trailed off as he realized he had no idea what he had been doing, or where he was or even who he was. All that he could remember was his name. He stumbled, trying to catch his balance with his head swimming as he got his feet beneath him.

Completely ignoring Sam's questions, the man started to drag him toward the older gentleman. Sam found himself digging his feet in, refusing to budge.

"What's wrong with you?" The man snapped. "We don't have time for this!"

Sam shook his head. "You've got some explaining to do before I go anywhere with you." He wrenched his arm out of the man's grip. Dark eyes looked surprised for an instant, then lunged for Sam again. Sam ducked under the lunge, instinctively grabbing dark eyes and flipping him onto his back with a thud.

Dark eyes rolled over with a groan, "I'm just trying to help you! We only have a moment until the human wakes up, and then we'll all be in danger!" He yelled up at Sam. "Who knows what he'll do when he finds us here!"

Confused, Sam glanced down first at dark eyes, and then at the older man still standing away from them both. "What are you talking about? I _am_..." He trailed off, clutching his head. Everything he had been about to say was crushed from his mind by the raging headache. Other thoughts quickly crowded into his head, pushing out everything else. Humans were BAD. Humans were dangerous. He felt fear creep up his spine as he realized what the other man was talking about. If a human was around, they were all in danger...

Away from the wall where they were standing, Sam heard sudden movement. A dark, massive mound was moving beyond the light they were standing in. A huge moan filled the air. The ground shook beneath Sam’s feet as it rose up, towering above the three of them. Sam's heart sank into his boots as he realized how much trouble they all were in.

"Sam?" A deep voice rumbled in the darkness. It shook him straight down to the bone. Sam froze. He must have been in more trouble than he thought. _It knew his name._ The headache came back with the sound of the humans’ voice, pushing all of Sam's thoughts out of his mind with the pain. He groaned quietly as he clutched his head.

He started to back away from the other men, who had also frozen in place when the movement started. The older man's gaze darted at Sam and then back towards the darkness. Sam saw him lick his lips nervously, eyes narrowed. Without warning, he turned and dashed towards the tunnel in the wall.

"What the hell!" The dark eyed man muttered under his breath as he was abandoned by his companion. Then he froze, looking out into the dark as he realized he may have called the humans attention down upon himself.

Sam was practically holding his breath at this point hoping the human wouldn't notice him. It was a futile hope though, considering he and dark eyes were sitting ducks in the only pool of light in the room.

"Sammy? Is that you?" Sam leaned back, covering his ears at the volume of the voice. The huge shadow loomed over them more as the human leaned over. He came into view as he leaned into the pool of light being cast from the fallen flashlight. Massive green eyes locked onto Sam's tiny brown ones. A frown was etched onto the humans face, making the look on his face intimidatingly intense. A massive hand landed next to the light, rattling Sam and dark eyes. Sam couldn't get his muscles to respond at all while caught in the giants gaze. "What the hell is going on..." The giant muttered in a softer voice, narrowing his eyes at them. Much easier on the ears.

The dark eyed man's gaze darted between Sam and the giant rapidly. Visibly gathering his courage, he hurled himself to his feet and ran at Sam, grabbing Sam's arm at full speed and yanking him towards the tunnel in the wall. "Come on, hurry!" He snapped, yanking Sam along. Sam found himself stumbling unsteadily as he ran, trying hard but unable to keep up the same pace as the other man. His legs were full of jello, throwing off his balance.

"HEY!" The voice alone shook the dust on the floor. Sam tripped in surprise at the sheer volume of the sound and sprawled on the ground, arm ripped out of the dark eyed mans' grip. A massive hand shot over Sam's head, with huge, thick fingers curling around the other man, crushing his arms to his sides. Dark eyes was yanked up into the air without hesitation, crying out in surprise. Once he had rolled to a stop, Sam pulled himself back up to his feet, gazing at the human fearfully. He had never felt this powerless in his life.

_How does he know my name?_

* * *

Dean found himself waking up sideways on the ground. He could hear a faint whispering in the background, like someone was talking under their breath. _Did anyone get the number of the truck that hit me?_ He saw his flashlight lying on the ground next to his head, pointing at the wall he and Sam had been examining. All he could see past the light was blurs against the wall.

Moaning, he pushed himself up into a sitting position, holding his hand to his head. "Sam?" he called out, praying his brother had been able to avoid whatever the hell that light had been. It sure had packed a nasty punch. He rubbed his eyes, hoping to clear up his vision somewhat. He needed to find Sam and make sure the kid was alright before they could find whatever it was that had been kidnapping people here.

He looked over at the pool of light against the wall as his vision began to clear up. Then did a double take as what he was seeing finally sunk in. Three small figures were staring up at him, frozen with the look of a deer in headlights. They couldn't have stood more than three inches tall at the most. He frowned as he took a closer look at them. They almost seemed... human? Without warning, one of them turned and ran for the crack in the wall. Dean didn't do anything to stop him. He was frozen looking at the figure farthest to the left.

"Sammy? Is that you?" He leaned over the flashlight, trying to get a better look at the tiny figure. He'd recognize that hair and jacket anywhere. The tiny man backed away from him, covering his ears. Dean realized his voice must have seemed too loud for his tiny brother. He lowered it as he muttered to himself "What the hell is going on..."

The other small figure near Sam suddenly jumped to his feet, dashing toward Dean's brother and grabbing his arm, yanking Sam into a run. "Hey!" Dean yelled. His brother wasn't about to become one of the people missing in this town. He saw tiny Sam stumble at the noise and tumble onto the ground, causing the other man to almost trip while Sam fell. Dean saw his chance, and took it, reaching his arm over his brothers’ tiny form, careful to avoid bumping against him in the process. He wrapped his fingers around the man, being very, very careful not to crush any bones when he closed his fist. He didn't want to hurt anyone before he knew what was going on.

He pulled the man up to chest level to get a better look, keeping his hand in the light from the flashlight. He could feel the tiny arms struggling against his fingers to escape from his grip. He couldn't help but feel bad for the little guy. It wasn't like he had much of a chance getting away from Dean's grip, considering he was smaller than any of Dean’s fingers, and far more fragile. Dean's fingers alone were practically as thick as his chest.

"What in the world are you?" Dean muttered as he studied the tiny man. Little eyes peered up at him fearfully.

"P-please, don't hurt me!" The diminutive figure moaned toward the human, trying to push himself away. Dean frowned at this, causing him to start trembling even more at the terrifying look.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Dean said with an annoyed scowl. "Least, now when I have no idea what the hell is going on here," he muttered as he glanced away, lowering his hand slightly.

Attention drifting away from the tiny man in his fist, Dean glanced toward his brothers' tiny form. "What the hell happened to you? Are you alright, Sam?" He called out, leaning over Sam to check on him and make sure he hadn't been injured when he tripped.

Instead of answering, Sam started to back away from his older brother. That was when Dean realized how white his brother was. Sam hadn't said a word to him since waking up. He seemed...scared? Terrified, in fact. "Sam...everything’s alright. You're gonna be ok. We'll figure this out, we always do..." Dean slowly leaned closer to his brothers little form, not wanting to spook him, but afraid to let Sam get too far away.

The reassuring words had no effect. In fact, when Sam turned and dashed away from him Dean decided he'd probably scared Sam more. Cursing under his breath, Dean lunged his empty hand towards his fleeing brother before he could get too far away, wrapping his long fingers as carefully as possible around the tiny figure before Sam could reach the crack in the wall and escape. Small arms tried desperately to push away Dean's fingers as he was unwillingly scooped up. Dean could feel his brother trembling in his grasp, tiny shoulders heaving up and down with panicked breaths. Dean could feel something inside of him crumble at being the cause of his brothers’ fear.

* * *

Once in the humans grasp, Sam couldn't stop himself from trembling. What could he do? The huge fingers wrapping around his body were far more powerful than him. They could crush him without a thought. He felt tendrils of fear wrap around him as he was lifted up high in the air with ease, being raised closer to the humans’ eye level. His stomach flipped at the height he was suspended in the air, without any control in his fate. His eyes darted to the side, glancing at the other man the human had captured, now being held at the same height as Sam. He knew instinctively that without any help or a miracle, neither of them would be able to escape. No matter how he struggled, Sam couldn't even budge his arms from the humans’ grip, as overpowering as it was.

He stared up at the huge face above him. The human didn't seem angry now. He seemed... confused. And upset. Or hurt, even. _That doesn't make any sense. Why would a human look...hurt? After all, he's the one that caught us!_ Taking in as deep a breath as he could while confined in a fist, he gathered what courage he had.

"Wha-What do you want from us?" Sam called up to the human.

Massive green eyes blinked down at him in surprise. "Sam, what the hell are you talking about? Don't you remember why we're here?"

Sam couldn't stop himself from shaking his head in disbelief. "We? What are you talking about? I've never even been near a human before now!"

Giving no reaction to being yelled at, the humans face slowly changed from confusion to disbelief. "Sam...Don’t you remember anything you were doing today?" The hand lifted him up even higher so that Sam was suspended directly in front of the humans gaze. "Do you even remember how you got here? Or who you are? You ARE a human, and you came here with me!"

Sam closed his eyes, trying to remember anything. Even what he's had for breakfast. But it was all a blank. Nothing came to him. All he could remember was waking on the floor a few minutes ago. The headache continued to push at his head, preventing him from thinking too deeply. He turned his eyes back up to the human, afraid to admit he didn't know anything.

The human met his eyes and must have seen something there, because he glared down at the ground and scowled. "Awesome." He turned his gaze to his other hand, eyes locked onto the dark eyed man he'd captured. "What about you? What's your name, pint size?"

The dark eyed man tried to draw back unsuccessfully from the human. "W-Warren..." he stammered uncertainly.

The human arched his eyebrows up at Warren. "Well, good to meet you Warren. I'm Dean, this is my brother Sam," he lifted up the hand holding Sam slightly, rattling Sam with the sudden movement. "And if you could tell me why my brother is suddenly short enough to tango with Tinkerbell, that'd be great," he said, giving Warren a cold smile.

"What?" Sam said, before Warren had a chance to respond. "I don't have a brother. What are you talking about? And how do you know my name in the first place?" Sam started to struggle again, trying to free up one of his arms to rub his head. His vision was starting to throb in time with his pulse and it was giving no sign of letting up. Dean shifted his hand without warning, opening up his massive fingers and accidentally sending Sam's tiny form sprawling to the middle of his palm. Sam clutched his head once he stopped moving, slowly pulling himself up to a sitting position. "Aahh," he groaned under his breath.

Dean suddenly looked harder at Sam, raising his hand slightly. "Are you alright? You don't look so good, man."

"My head." Sam groaned, holding his hand to his forehead. Looking up, he realized how close the human was and tried to shift back nervously. It was unsettling to be the center of attention for something so overwhelmingly large, and Dean was completely focused on him. He bumped up against one of the massive fingers that arched up behind him. He recoiled in surprise, hoping against hope that the human wasn't going to close his fist again.

Dean seemed to take notice of Sam's concern and leaned back, giving both the little people some breathing space. He looked up and sighed. "Well, we're getting nowhere fast here. And, since sitting on the floor isn't the most comfortable place to talk, I think you'll both be coming back to the motel with me."

Sam felt his heart jump into his throat. It didn't sound like they were going to get away from the human. He just wanted to go home, lay his head down and rest. Maybe on a bed of ice if this headache didn't get any better. The last thing he wanted was for an unwilling joyride with a human, with no way of knowing what Dean was going to do with him and Warren.

Dean must have sensed Sam's trepidation. He glanced down briefly, catching Sam's gaze and holding it. "You have nothing to worry about Sam, I will fix this. I promise."

The human shifted his position until he was sitting straight up. He dumped Warren into the same hand that Sam was in, and opened up the pocket of his jacket with his free hand. "I'll let you both out when we get back to the motel, but until then this is the safest place for you," he stated in a reassuring tone of voice.

Recovering from being dropped next to Sam, Warren scoffed at the human. "The safest place for us is right here! Please, can't you just let me go home? We'll both be safer there, away from you humans!"

"I highly doubt that since without you, my brother would still be looking down at me like the sasquatch he is. So, enjoy the ride, or not. I don't really care." Dean moved the hand holding the two men down and held the pocket open, tilting his hand so that Sam and Warren tumbled in together.

Sam's last view of outside was the mirror leaning against the wall, seeing a reflection of how insignificant he and Warren looked compared to the human holding them captive. Comforting. Then all he could see was dark, fabric walls closing in as he half landed on top of Warren at the bottom of the pocket. "Sorry," he muttered as he pulled away, trying to grab onto the thick fabric so he could pull himself up without crashing back down on top of the other man again. Warren pulled away, crouching in the opposite side of the pocket. Sam heard the fabric at the top rustle and the tiny bit of light that was filtering in suddenly went dark. Looking up, he realized that Dean must have buttoned up the pocket.

_Well, getting out of here just got a whole lot harder._

Suddenly, Sam's whole world rocked and swayed, then his stomach plummeted as gravity pushed them both down into the pocket. _Dean must be standing up to go, S_ am thought, feeling panic worm into him again. _We're running out of time._ He tried to jump up to reach the top of the pocket but missed as the world shook again. Swaying in time with Dean's thudding footsteps, he managed to grab the lip of the pocket on his second attempt, a little higher up than his head was. He tried to push up on the flap to see if they could slip out before Dean got too far. Each step Dean was taking put them farther away from Warren's home, and safety. The flap had no give at all when he pushed. Sam wasn't even strong enough to open up a pocket. He crashed back down to the bottom of the pocket when the pocket suddenly started bouncing. _Stairs._ This had to be his worst run of luck ever. If only he could recall anything from before today to compare his luck too.

Dean must have already reached outside, as the pocket suddenly lightened. Sam glanced across the pocket at Warren. The other man smiled at Sam. "Enjoying the ride?" Warren asked.

"Oh, absolutely. Most fun I've had in ages." He glared at the other man stuck with him. "How come you aren't trying to get out?" Sam glanced up at the only exit. "You can't want to stay in here."

Warren turned away with a frown. "No, but I know exactly how hard it is to escape from a pocket. Did you think about how high up we are while he's standing? You'll be taking a sidewalk swan dive before you manage to get away from him like this. Or, he'll catch you and you end up back in here with me again anyway."

The pocket stopped swaying for a moment, then all of a sudden dropped. A massive roar sounded, making Sam jump in his shoes. "What was THAT?"

Warren glanced up, eyebrows furrowed. "Car, maybe?" He pushed himself up to make an attempt at the lip of the pocket. Sam stood next to him. Working together, they managed to push up the lip of the pocket almost far enough to see out of when out of nowhere something massive patted against them several times, pushing them both roughly up against the wall of Dean's chest repeatedly and causing them to lose balance and fall back down into a heap.

"Sonofabitch." Sam dug himself out from under the other man and moved back into the corner of the pocket. He sighed. "Guess we might as well get comfortable. Looks like we're gonna be stuck for a bit." He glanced over at Warren. "Did you know what he was talking about? Were there other humans around he might have mixed me up with?"

Warren stared down at his hands. "All I know is that Aelfric and me found you lying on the ground. We saw the human, figured you needed the help. That's when you woke up and flipped me."

"Sorry, instinct took over. Thought I was under attack when you grabbed me." Sam stuck his hand out. "So, we good?"

Warren took his hand. "Yea, we're good." He tried to get settled in the corner opposite Sam, pulling his legs as close to his body as possible. "So, you remember anything from before we found you?"

Sam shook his head, causing it to start throbbing again. "No, nothing. Woke up, saw you running at me and that’s about it. Why?"

"No reason, just wondering where you came from. Haven't seen you around before." Warren trailed off and looked away, pulling his arms and legs into a ball.

Sam leaned back as far as he could in the tight space and tried his best to stretch out his legs. The silence between them stretched out for a minute... then five... then ten. Sam felt himself drifting off to sleep, lulled by the gentle swaying of the pocket and the warmth from them being trapped in such a small, stuffy area for so long against a human's chest.


	3. A Story, a Snack and a Sneak

Dean glanced down at his pocket as he started up the Impala. Feeling Sam and Warren moving around in there was weird and awkward and uncomfortable. And it had to be even more uncomfortable for them stuck inside. He felt so guilty having to button up Sam in there, effectively trapping his own brother against his will. He couldn't take any chances though. If he lost Sam at this size, finding him again would be no picnic, especially if Sam wanted to stay gone. He'd be ripping up floorboards for a year to get his brother back. And probably traumatizing Sammy even more. _Super._

Dean noticed the lip of the pocket starting to move a little and patted it gently with his hand, figuring they were trying to get out. The last thing he needed was his brother staging the great escape while he was distracted driving the car. And he knew from experience Sammy was fantastic at slipping away unnoticed.  He felt awful keeping Sam in the dark like this, but there was no avoiding it as long as Sam was determined to run away from him. The little bodies slumped back down to the bottom of the pocket as soon as he pulled his hand away.

If he listened hard enough, he could even hear faint voices. Not enough to make out what they were saying but enough to know that they were talking in there. If only he could get Sam to listen to him, instead of some stranger! He needed Sam to remember who he was, or even just stop being afraid of every move he made! This whole situation was frustrating Dean, making him feel more like a jailer than a worried brother.

Fifteen minutes passed by slowly on the road with Dean reliving the last hour in his mind over and over, wondering if there had been anything he could have done to prevent Sam's shrinking. The Impala reached the motel at last right when the sun finally slipped below the horizon, casting the world in shadow. He pulled the Impala into the parking lot with more care than usual, not wanting to knock around his unwilling passengers any more than necessary. Once parked, he sighed, rubbing his head with his hand and resting it against the side of the car for a brief moment of peace. _Better just get this over with._ Grabbing his duffel bag from the back, he slammed the car door shut, going up to their motel room. Once unlocked, he went into the room he was sharing with Sam, tossing his bag into the corner of the room. He grabbed a beer from the mini fridge for moral support with the ultimate weirdness of the situation before going over to the table.

After steeling himself, he carefully unbuttoned his jacket pocket, wondering what he'd find. He hadn't felt any movement at all the second half of the ride back. Dean slowly opened it and peered in. Sam's tiny body was slumped in one corner, arms and legs draped haphazardly, eyes shut tight and giving no visible response to Dean's accidental jostling of the pocket. Warren was sitting in the other corner, arms wrapped fearfully around his legs and trying to look as small as possible. Once the pocket was opened he glanced up, squinting at the sudden light filling the space.

"Did he actually...fall asleep?" Dean said, surprised. He reached his hand in slowly, carefully wrapping long fingers around Warren first and pulling him out in a fist, careful to avoid bumping into Sam in the tiny space. He could still feel Warren trembling between his fingers as he was lifted up. Dean set him on the table next to the beer bottle. The little guy was so small, his head didn't reach the halfway mark of the bottle.

"Well, we didn't exactly get to take the scenic route. The inside of a pocket gets a little dull after a while." Warren said dryly as he glanced around at the table he was standing on. Dean noticed that the shaking had stopped when he started talking.

Dean arched his eyebrows at the tiny man. "Getting less afraid of me now?" He had to admit, he was surprised to hear any sarcasm after how frightened Warren had been earlier. With any luck, he'd be able to get some answers now.

Warren looked down and shivered, holding his arms close. "No, sorry. Just figured I can't get myself in any worse trouble than being captured by a human."

"You'd be surprised how much worse things can get whenever you think you've reached the bottom." Dean muttered half to himself as he glanced back down at Sam. He and Sam had a lot of personal experience with worst case scenarios. Like right now. How the hell was he supposed to get Sam out without waking him...? Dean cautiously reached his hand in again, and as gently as possible tilted the pocket until his brothers tiny body rolled onto his waiting fingers, still sleeping.

He felt a pang inside when he saw clearly how miniscule and helpless Sam was now. It was far more obvious with Sam knocked out just how defenseless he was, dwarfed easily by just the hand holding him. Dean gently placed his thumb against Sam's chest to hold him lightly in place while he moved, and was shocked to see it covered almost his brothers' entire chest. He could feel the tiny bones under his thumb, feel how delicate they were now. Dean vowed again to get him back to his gigantor status stat. Just _seeing_ how Sam wouldn't even be as long as his ring finger when fully stretched out hurt. Carefully cupping both hands safely around Sam, he peered around the room and tried to think of a good place to let his little brother sleep without letting him out of sight. The last thing he needed was Sam trying to 'escape' again.

Spotting the perfect place, Dean grabbed one of the Sam's pillows and centered it on the bed. From there, Dean would have plenty of time to react if Sam woke up and tried to run. He slowly tilted his hand until Sam slipped off, by some miracle still asleep after all that excitement.

He walked back over to the table he'd left Warren on, who hadn't moved a muscle the whole time Dean was gone. Opening his beer, he leaned back in his seat, locking his eyes on Warren. "So, ready to tell me what the hell is going on here, pint size?"

Warren shifted uncomfortably on the table under Dean's scrutiny. "Depends on if you're planning on letting me go or not."

"Pretty brave for such a little guy there." Dean took another swig of his beer. "How 'bout we start small then. What are you?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Warren said. "We're fairies."

"No offense, but when we ran into fairies last they couldn't be seen unless you took a one way trip to their realm. Last I checked, Sam can see you fine."

"You've seen other fairies recently?" Warren sounded eager, actually taking a step towards Dean before he realized what he was doing. He froze and a brief look of shock crossed his face when he realized how close he had been getting to the human. He lowered his eyes to the table and backed away from Dean.

Dean raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, they had some deal with a clockmaker in Indiana. We sent them back to their realm after they neglected to tell the clockmaker that the deal he'd made included taking the first born sons of the families there. The way they put it, they were to partake of the 'fruit and fat of the land.' So more than a little unclear. Even I was lucky enough to get abducted to Neverland before they decided I was a bit too trigger happy for them."

"I didn't think any were crossing over anymore." Warren said, almost sounding like he was talking to himself. "Maybe..." His tiny form paced back and forth on the table for almost a minute thoughtfully before Dean cleared his throat impatiently. He jumped in surprise at the sound, almost tripping over his own feet. It almost seemed like he'd forgotten Dean was there. He stopped pacing and faced Dean.

Dean leaned down. "So, you gonna answer the question?"

"What question?"

"Why can Sam see you?"

Warren stared at his feet. "It's us. We're.... losing our magic. We've been trapped in this world for far too long. The magic is... being drained from our people and there's no way for us to stop it. The humans, they've been able to find us, capture us, and hunt us."

"Fairies can lose their magic?"

Warren shrugged his small shoulders. "It's the first time we've ever heard of it happening. But I don't think fairies have ever been stranded from their realm with the gate closed like this before. Usually when the gate closes we get sent home whether we want to go or not. It's not exactly a choice. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Lucky us."

Dean watched the fairy shuffle his feet in place while he was talking and realized that standing on the table couldn't be comfortable. He pulled over one of the books Sam had been reading earlier on that day about the town. "Here, make yourself at home," he said, giving a tight lipped smile to Warren.

Warren backed away from the giant book being slid over to him at first, then took Dean's suggestion. His feet didn't even hit the ground when he sat down on it, making Dean once again realize the size difference between them.

"So," Dean said once the fairy was settled. "What can strand a bunch of fairies from their home?"

The fairy looked away from him, an unsettled look on his face. "We don't totally know. A portal was opened, a deal struck," he glanced over in Dean's direction. "A FAIR deal. We don't hide the fine print where we come from. We were to tend the gardens, keeping the plants healthy with our magic. No surprises, no secret agendas. There was never any need to hide our intentions. With the magic we provided, the plants here grew larger and tastier than any of the surrounding areas. The town was happy and in return we were given a home. Cream for our families, a safe place to rest. It was nice after the turbulence in our realm to have a haven." He leaned back on his arms, stretching out his legs along the book's binding and closing his eyes to his memories. "If only it had lasted."

Dean folded his arms on the table in front of the book, leaning slightly over Warren. "What happened?" He said, keeping his voice soft enough to avoid startling the fairy out of his thoughts.

Keeping his eyes shut to the world, Warren went on. "There was a man. Named Akar. He was an outsider who found out about the deal. He spent years trying to get the town to change the deal, get more out of us. He wanted the fairies to use their magic for more. He was ignored, laughed at and chased out on more than one occasion. The townspeople who knew about us kept him as far away from us as possible. They didn't want him hurting us or trying to control any of us. Everything was going on great until he got ahold of the book used to summon us originally. There was a spell in that book that we had never heard of, or knew existed. Since he couldn't get what he wanted out of us he decided that no one was to have us. He used a spell from the book, sealing the door and trapping us here."

Warren opened his eyes at the end of the story. Spotting Dean so much closer than before, he jumped up in shock. He backed away from the human a few inches, uncomfortable at the proximity. He continued on with the story once he was no longer overshadowed, "Since that spell was cast, Akar disappeared from the town, and since none of us ever saw him we couldn't track him down to force him to reverse it. And now, every year there is a little less magic in us. Most of us can't even manage the simplest spells now, with one or two exceptions. The humans that were once our friends forgot about us, and anytime we've run into humans since, it's gone badly. We even lost our wings when the magic started to fade."

"So that's how we've got a bunch of fairies running around looking more like Borrowers than Tinkerbells." Dean shoved his empty beer bottle out of the way, ignoring the fairy for the moment.

"Yeah, well it's not like we want to be here. We'd love nothing more than to be able to go home. Losing your magic...it's like having your eyes and ears hacked off slowly. Or your skin peeled off while you watch. It's an important part of us, and we don't know how to get it back." Warren reached the far end of the book and sat down facing away from Dean, shoulders slumping down. He buried his face in his arms.

Looking over at the fairy, Dean noticed that Warren had wandered out of arm's reach. He put his hand on the end of the book closest to him, pulling Warren in closer again. He didn't want the fairy to get too far away incase Warren tried anything. Dean leaned down, trying to get Warren to meet his gaze. "Well, now I gotta ask the real question. None of this gives me a reason why my brother was shrunk down and doesn't remember me. I know you know why. Tell me."

Warren kept his eyes straight ahead of him, staring at the huge hand resting near him. "It...It wasn't me that did it. I swear. I'm just a guard. The other guy with me was the one I was to guard. Aelfric is one of the last of us who is able to reliably use magic. I was just around to protect him, he did the work. He found a spell that would make a human into a fairy for a short time, giving them fairy memories and size. He said it would be a way to make humans understand us more, maybe even get them to stop trying to capture us. Since losing our magic, fairies have been caught many times. And without magic it's so hard to escape. Some got treated like pets, some died...horribly. Others... had a hard time recovering. There are a few fairies that I haven't seen for decades because of it. We just wanted to give the people a new perspective." He rubbed his hands together nervously. "That's all it was supposed to do, I swear! We aren't hurting anyone, just trying to get them to stop hurting us."

Dean considered Warren's story, rubbing the slight scruff on his chin. "And the memories? You said Sam's supposed to have fairy memories or something, but he doesn't remember anything. From what I saw, he knows who you are as much as he remembers who I am. What the hell's up with that?"

Warren contemplated his hands. "I'm not sure. It's never failed on a human before." He glanced up at Dean, meeting the big green eyes for the first time. "But I do have a guess."

"What do you mean?"

"When Aelfric was telling me about the spell, he mentioned it was a spell for 'humans bound to the land.' Unlike the humans we've seen, you said that you've been to a fairy realm. It gave you the ability to see us even when we're hiding, but it also unbinds you from this land. Once you travel to one of our dimensions, some of the magic of our world returns with you, as a part of you. There are side effects from traveling there. One of them being the ability to see the fairies. You must have also gained immunity to certain spells too. That must have caused the spell to bounce off of you, and your brother got smacked with a double dose. Knocked out all of his memories instead of replacing them. Did you see how much pain he's in whenever he tries to remember anything? None of the other humans have ever reacted that way."

Dean sat back up in his chair, recalling how his brother had been clutching his head since he'd been shrunk. At the time he thought it was from Sam hitting his head when he fell, but this made more sense.  "How long does the spell last? Will Sam get his memory back?"

Crossing his arms, Warren mused. "I don't know. I was never good at magic to begin with. That’s how I ended up on sentry duty all my life."

"This guy who cast the spell... you said the fairies are losing their magic. How is he still able to manage turning so many humans into fairies?"

Warren furrowed his brow. "We think it's because he came through the portal last. No one had ever seen him before the closing of the portal. He said he saw it closing and knew he needed to come and help us. He feared what would happen to his people when they were stranded. We'd have been lost without his help."

Dean sighed and stretched in the chair. "Well, sounds like the first thing I'll have to do will be find this spell book you mentioned. Maybe there'll be some kind of reversal spell in it." Dean arched his eyebrows. "Maybe even a way to send you all back home," he said in a muted tone.

"You would do that for us? Even after what we did?" Warren said nervously, not sounding like he believed it.

"Yeah, we're all going to be better off with everyone back where they belong. You back home, Sam back as a human. It's too dangerous for both our people to have you here. And whether we find a way to send you home or not, once we get Sam and the others back to humanity, you'll be free to leave. Scouts honor." Dean held his finger out to Warren. "Shake on it?"

The tiny man stared at the finger outstretched to him nervously, then held out his hand and 'shook.' Dean saw him trying to hide a shudder, and couldn't find it in himself to blame the guy. Warren's whole hand barely covered the tip of his finger.

"So, you hungry?" Dean said, taking his hand back and changing the subject as fast as possible.

* * *

While the human was ordering food on his phone, Warren took the brief time to look around his temporary 'home.' It was not a large room by human standards, but for a Fae it was enormous. One of the beds alone would be large enough to play sports on. He saw the other human, Sam, still out cold on the pillow where Dean had put him. Warren found himself hoping Sam would wake soon. It was unsettling to not have someone at the same size to talk too. Even though he didn't know Sam at all, it would be nice to have someone else around, who didn't tower over him sitting down. Dean was intimidating enough that Warren was hoping he would stay on the phone for as long as possible. Having those piercing green eyes stare at him made him feel more like a specimen in a science lab than a person.

Dean hung up the phone and walked back over to the table, footsteps shaking Warren even from across the room. "So, I ordered us a pizza and a salad. No meat for you to worry about. No cream though. Sorry."

"That sounds great. Thanks." Warren found himself looking up at Dean curiously. "I wasn't expecting you to treat me so well while you have me captive."

"So long as you're helping me, I'm not gonna hurt you or let anything happen to you. We're on the same team right now. If that changes though..." Dean trailed off, looking down at the fairy with hard eyes.

"Yeah, I get the picture," Warren mumbled. He was on a short leash.

"And unfortunately I'll have to put you in a jar to sleep in. Can't have you running away while I get some shut eye." Dean reached into his duffel bag and pulled out a jar, easily twice as tall as Warren.

Warren found himself glowering at it, then Dean. "No honor system?"

Dean smirked. "Not in this life. I'm not gonna risk losing my only link to getting my brother back to normal. You disappear, and I have no other tie to the fairies. So it's the jar for you. Don't worry, I'll have to put Sam in with you later, since he's pretty much terrified of me and a bigger flight risk than you are. So you won't be completely alone in there." He sighed deeply.

Warren took note of the tone of Dean's voice. He sounded so... regretful of his brother's fear. Like it was the last thing in the world he would ever want. Warren tried to imagine how he'd feel if his sister was terrified of him. It would probably be the worst feeling in the world to look into her eyes, and instead of seeing the trust she had in him, seeing her fear of him. No, he decided. There could be no worse feeling than that. He found himself regretting his involvement in bringing Aelfric to the basement of that house this time and the times before. Here he thought he'd been helping out, and really they were hurting families just like him and his sister. Not to mention the fact that these humans didn't seem bad compared with the others Warren had met with in the past. Dean was acting the same way as any other concerned family member would that Warren had ever known, doing everything he could for his brother. It was making it easier to connect with the human.

While waiting for the food to be delivered, Dean grabbed Sam's laptop, setting up to at least get started on some of his research. The little fairy wandered over, curious about what the human was doing, and sat where he was in a good position to see the screen.

Dean glanced over at him. "Do you remember the last place the book used to summon the fairies was?"

"Ahhh, if I remember right, it was left in the care of an older human named Garin Walters at the time. He was one of the few alive at the time who remembered the bargain, and one of the only humans able to read the fairy script." He turned toward Dean. "This all happened over fifty years ago though, so it's unlikely he still has it. He wasn't young then, and you humans live such short lives."

Dean smiled at that. "Well, I happen to be an expert at tracking things down... this won't be the first time I'm following a cold trail." The human started typing away on the computer.

Warren watched the screen flick through different images before growing bored with watching. He laid back on the table, staring at the ceiling, deep in thought. So much had happened it was hard to take it all in at once. Excitement was the last thing Warren wanted in his life. He desired nothing more than to go back home and be able to return to his simple duties of a watchman. No life or death to worry about, no giant humans around to watch out for, or spells gone wrong. He ached for the simplicity of his life before. Here, he couldn't let his guard down for a moment. Dean might not be giving off the dangerous vibe from earlier but he could still be deadly to a 3 inch tall fairy without even trying.

Soon enough, there was a knocking on the door. Dean stood up and glanced down at Warren. "Don't make a sound," he said warningly. He went over to the door, blocking the doorway so that the delivery boy couldn't see into the room while he paid for the food. Dean came back over to the table carrying the boxes. Warren moved nervously over to the edge of the table while Dean set everything down. He was still shocked by the size of everything. It was just so...enormous! Dean pulled out a napkin, setting a little bit of everything from the salad on it for the fairy, and then opened up his pizza.

Warren happily tucked into the salad, carefully avoiding glancing over at Dean once the human started eating. Dean easily took bites larger than Warren was... just another reminder of how completely screwed he was.

Dean finished up quickly. Warren backed out of the way while the human put the leftovers in the mini fridge. After he'd finished cleaning up, Dean walked back over to the table with a washcloth and put it in the bottom of the jar. "Ready for some shut eye?" He asked, staring down at the fairy.

"Sure." Warren couldn't avoid backing away as the human moved even closer, towering over his tiny form. Dean's massive hand came to rest right next to the fairy, palm up with long fingers stretched out. The tiny Fae focused on it, grateful the human wasn't going to just grab him again. It was still hard to willingly put himself in such a vulnerable position. He looked up uneasily at the human. Dean was looking down at him with an unsympathetic expression in his eyes. Taking a deep breath to settle his nerves, Warren stepped up onto the hand. The flesh had enough give in it to make walking difficult. Warren couldn't stop his body from shaking slightly. The last time he'd been in this hand, it had almost crushed him. Once he was centered in the palm, he gave a gasp as the hand moved quickly upward, almost making him lose his balance. It came to a sudden halt in front of Dean's face. Warren found himself shaking even more at such close scrutiny.

The human stared down at him with a scowl on his face. "Still so afraid of me?" He asked, sounding surprised.

Warren met the huge eyes uncertainly. "It's not just you... the only times I've ever been around humans, it's never gone well. And you're... kinda intimidating." With nowhere else to look, he found himself studying his feet, embarrassed.

Dean lowered Warren down. "Well, I'll try not to scare you so much tomorrow." He grabbed the jar and tilted it so that Warren was able to slide safely in. "I'll drop Sam in later, once I finish a bit more research. I don't want to wake him 'till I have to."

Warren stood at the bottom of the jar, disoriented with the swift movement as Dean placed it in the center of the table with a jarring thump. He looked up at the top of the jar. It was far too high for him to reach without help. Rubbing his hands along the glass, he found it far too smooth to climb. Didn't look like he would be going anywhere without help. He noticed the human watching him and turned away, sitting down on the washcloth and getting settled. It wasn't the most comfortable bed, but considering his situation it could be a lot worse. With a sigh he lay down to sleep, pushing part of the washcloth into a pillow.

* * *

Dean watched the fairy look around at the jar he was trapped in. It didn't look like he'd be able to get out without help. He wasn't planning on getting much sleep that night anyway, so he could keep an eye on the fairy just in case. Dean grabbed the laptop off of the table and went over to the bed he'd left Sam on earlier.

The little guy was still passed out, arms and legs splayed haphazardly across the pillow, tiny snores coming from his small frame. Dean gently moved the pillow off to the side and took a seat on the bed next to it, Sam somehow managing to sleep on despite the small earthquake that Dean caused at his scale. Dean nudged Sam's tiny figure as gently as possible back to the middle of the pillow with the tip of his finger, wanting to not have to worry about Sam rolling off accidentally. Dean couldn't afford to lose sight of his brother for a second in this situation. Sam couldn't win a fight with a field mouse the way things were right now. Or a spider. Dean shuddered at the thought of spiders the size of dogs, or mice and rats the size of Saint Bernard’s chasing him. He rested his free arm softly next to the pillow so he'd have Sam in easy reach if anything happened.

The only thing Dean had going tonight was keeping Sam safe wouldn't be hard so long as he kept his brother close by. It was the most important task Dean had, and he couldn't afford to ever let his guard drop. Especially now. As long as Sam was in reach. He held that thought in his mind. Nothing else mattered. Keep Sammy safe.

Pulling the computer back onto his lap for some distraction from the total weirdness his life had become, Dean resumed his research. He'd managed to find records of Garin Walters' death in the computer so far. He'd passed away in 1976 at the ripe age of 86. He had no living family at the time so his belongings had been donated. The records from that time stated that Walter's private library, which had been fairly extensive, with volumes ranging from over 30 different cultures, had all been donated to the town's public library. His library could have rivaled Bobby's in some ways. Dean found himself wondering if anyone had even ever checked out the volume from the fairy realm. A book that was in an incomprehensible language couldn't be the most popular book on the rack.

For Sam's sake, he hoped it was still there.

It had only been an hour or two of Dean following through with that line of reasoning, double checking to make sure he hadn't missed anything, when a deep feeling of exhaustion struck him. Blinking quickly he tried to clear his eyes up but it didn't help at all...he felt his thoughts slipping away into sleep. His eyelids grew heavy in no time, sagging closed. Nothingness overcame him swiftly.

* * *

Tenanye walked out from the shadow of the bed. She hadn't wanted to use the little magic she had left for such a simple task, but she had begun to think that the human would never go to sleep. Usually humans slept through the night. It was just her luck that the one who had captured her brother was the exception. And she needed to get this rescue moving along. It was dangerous to stay so close to humans in any situation. And it had been so long since she had seen her brother last, it hurt knowing she was in the same room with him now, so close and still unable to see him.

Grabbing onto the blanket of the bed, she hauled herself up the steep side slowly. She had spent far more time than Warren amongst the human dwellings and had become a great climber through necessity. There had been plenty of time for her to practice in the last fifty years living here. She tossed her dark hair out of her eyes as she neared the top. Hauling herself up, she found herself cut off from her goal by the human. She groaned at her luck. _Great, now I have no choice but to hope my sleep spell was strong enough to keep him from feeling me climbing over him._

She eyed the obstruction in her path. A massive arm rested right next to where she was standing, offering an easy but dangerous climb up. If she woke him, it would be all over for her. Being captured by a human again... she gulped nervously.

Pushing away her fears, she grabbed onto his sleeve right above his wrist and started to scale it, stiffening when she felt him move slightly. Fearful, she gazed up at his sleeping face. After a few tense moments he settled back down and she allowed herself to relax somewhat. Hopefully her spell would hold long enough. Even a simple spell like this was impossible to predict these days. She was stuck with no other options though.

Gently walking up the soft fabric, she continued her trek, hopping from his arm to his chest as lightly as she could. She froze there for a moment to see if there was any reaction to her movement before continuing on. As skittish as she was, she knew that just one little mistake would land her in a world of trouble.

Each breath he took shook her balance, raising her slowly up and down in a steady rhythm. She could even feel his heart beating underneath her feet. Everything about this was throwing her balance off. Halfway across the broad chest, she saw the computer sitting on his lap was still open to what he'd been doing before she'd knocked him out. Unable to contain her curiosity, she glanced over at the computer as she passed it. There was a familiar face in the photo displayed on the screen.

_Is that... Garin? How does this guy know about him?_

She quickly scanned the room from her new perch. She saw one tiny Fae sleeping on a pillow next to the human, and on the table across the room she could see her brother. Her hopes crumpled a little when she saw what he was being kept in. She didn't have any gear that would be able to get him out of such a massive jar. _The human must have found out about Garin from Warren. But why would a human be so interested in such an old story?_ Most humans that ever captured fairies were just interested in either 'playing' with them, or selling them to the highest bidder. Very few had ever had anything approaching a normal discussion with a Fae, and only one she had ever talked to had actually listened. And that had been dear Garin.

The human shifted beneath her without warning, knocking her off balance. She was tossed to her knees, and tumbled a few inches down his chest. The arm she'd climbed up earlier shifted so it was draped across his chest mere inches away from her. She paled at the sight. If it had landed a few more inches to the left, she would have been trapped, whether she was noticed or not. Something as big as that hand could easily pin her in place, or even crush her without the human ever waking up. It was an unfortunate reminder of the danger she was in just being here and that she had an ever shrinking window of time for this rescue. No time for reminiscing about the past. The spell she had cast would wear off soon and if she was still here she would end up just as trapped as her brother and useful to no one.

_Some rescuer I'm turning out to be,_ she thought ruefully. She jumped off his side, sliding down the huge blue shirt and landed gracefully on her feet. She checked over her shoulder to make sure her movements hadn't roused him. Once she was certain she hadn't disturbed the human, she headed toward the pillow she'd landed near, carefully avoiding the second massive hand resting nearby. Climbing the pillow turned out to be harder than scaling the human. It was far too fluffy, and bouncy. She kept losing her balance while hauling herself up it. Finally reaching the top, she collapsed next to her target, taking a deep breath. He was resting peacefully, which she found surprising considering that he was sleeping next to such a massively dangerous human. No humans she had ever interacted with had treated her kindly in her decades in the human world. Not since Garin. She would never be able to sleep next to one like this.

Before waking the Fae up, she checked for any obvious injuries, wondering where he had come from. She had never met anyone that looked anything like him back in the days she lived with the other fairies. He was far more handsome than most of the fairies she'd ever met. A small blush brightened her cheeks at that thought. And the only fairy that she'd never had the pleasure of meeting was Aelfric, and supposedly he was far older, and greyer than this. This guy had long brown hair framing a handsome face, and even while he was laying down she could tell he would be tall when standing.

Covering up his mouth so he wouldn't wake the sleeping human with any exclamations, she hissed, "Wake up!" quiet enough and close enough to his ear so the human wouldn't hear and wake up. He jumped in her grip, startled by her voice. His eyes opened and locked onto her. She held her free hand to her mouth, signaling quiet. He nodded slowly at her, hazel eyes wide and round. Slowly she took her hand away from his mouth. "Are you okay?" She asked softly while she checked him for injuries one last time.

 "I'm fine." His eyes came up to meet hers. "My name's Sam." He kept his voice at the same low level as hers, gently rubbing his head. "Who are you? What's going on?"

 "I'm here to rescue you." She smiled brightly at him. "I'm Tenanye."

 She watched as Sam carefully glanced around at his surroundings, eyes widening as he realized for the first time where he was. He recoiled when he saw how close they were to the sleeping human. "Do you have a plan?"

 She wiggled her eyebrows at him. "I a _lways_ have a plan."


	4. Losing Family

Sam pulled himself to his feet on the pillow, holding his arms out for balance as he stood. Tenanye stood up next to him with far better balance. She was absolutely tiny, even compared to Sam. And he wasn't about to win any height contests today. She came up to the middle of his chest, slender body looking fragile even compared to others at the same size. She looked so delicate a strong gust of wind might blow her away. Long black hair ran straight down her back, and her eyes shone the same dark color as Warren's. From what he could tell, she couldn't have been any older than early twenties. She glanced back at him with a huge grin and a wink, and bounced carelessly down the pillow, landing gracefully on her feet. Sam on the other hand tumbled back on his ass when she shook the pillow with her bouncing.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" She called up to him, quietly laughing at his situation.

Rolling his eyes, Sam pulled himself back to his feet, and decided to just use the pillow as a slide. There was no way he'd ever be able to get down as gracefully as her. He bounced to a halt right next to the human's massive hand, arms pin wheeling as he barely stopped himself from crashing into it. The knuckles alone came up to Sam's waist. Sam found himself frozen, unable to look away from the sleeping human. Something felt so... wrong... about running away from him. Despite every instinct he had telling him to get as far away from the human - from Dean - there was a tiny voice in the back of his head that wouldn't shut up, telling him to trust Dean. Briefly, he remembered the way Dean had looked at him, right before Sam had been trapped in the pocket with Warren.

_"You have nothing to worry about Sam, I will fix this. I promise."_

Something in Dean's eyes at that moment had told Sam that he meant every word he'd said. Sam felt no danger now when he looked at the human. To his surprise, he found himself reaching his hand towards the large knuckles next to him, suddenly not caring how big they were in comparison and how afraid he'd been the last time the human had been awake. He wanted to wake up the human, ask him what he'd meant. He pushed down the ball of fear that had taken permanent residence in his chest. He NEEDED to know.

He was stopped suddenly by a tiny, pale hand grabbing his arm and gripping tightly, preventing him from touching the human.

Tenanye looked up at him, her eyes large and serious for the first time. "If he wakes up, he'll capture both of us. We need to leave, now." Slowly she let his arm go, keeping watch on Sam the whole time. Hesitantly he pulled away from the human.

Sam glanced back up at Dean's face, peaceful in sleep and sighed. "It just feels...wrong to run away from him for some reason."

Putting her arm around his waist to help with balance, Tenanye gently guided Sam away from the human, toward the edge of the bed. The bedcovers there reached all the way to the bottom, offering a way for them to scale down off of the bed. Cocking her head at Sam, she said, "Do you think you'll be able to climb down?"

He peered over the edge. Though they were quite high up, he didn't have a problem with the height. For some reason, he had a nagging feeling that he'd climbed far worse in his life, though he still couldn't remember any of his previous climbing trips. The pounding in his head started up again at that train of thought. "Yeah, I should be fine," he muttered, holding a hand to his head.

She stared at him with worry in her eyes. "Are you alright? You look whiter than a ghost!"

Still clutching his head, he said, "Just a headache. I've had it ever since waking up, right before the human caught Warren and me."

The tiny girl pulled him down to her level and placed a hand against his forehead. Her palm was icy to the touch and was wonderful against his skin. "Well, you're not burning up at all, so that's a relief. I have some water you can have once we get out of here." She gestured over the edge of the bed. "So, you wanna go first?"

Sam swung himself over the edge of the bed, finding it easy to cling to the large fibers of the blanket. He cast one last look up at Dean's massive sleeping form before starting the long climb down. _I have to be imagining things. Why would a human give a damn about me?_

Despite his head start, Tenanye reached the bottom long before Sam. Her smaller size made her far quicker, and long practice had given her arms great muscle tone. Sam, being heavier and far less adjusted to climbing on a daily basis found himself lagging far behind, finally getting to the bottom of the blanket and collapsing next to the tiny girl.

"So, what's next," he huffed, exhausted.

"Well, I was going to go get Warren next, but the human has him trapped in a jar." She gestured toward the table at the far end of the room from them. Sam could just barely make out the top of the jar from their vantage point. "I have no way to get him out of it," she finished sadly.

"Why wouldn't he have put me in the jar with Warren?" Sam said, thinking out loud in confusion. "Why make it easy for me to escape if he fell asleep?"

She regarded Sam for a long moment with her large, doe eyes. "I don't know, but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Would you rather still be a prisoner?"

Sam sighed. "Of course not. I'm just sorry we can't help your brother." It still bothered him that he hadn't been confined at all, though. Nothing was making sense about the whole situation with him and Warren. And Dean mistaking him for his brother... how was that possible? His head practically stabbed at him with all these thoughts, making it clear he shouldn't be thinking so much.

Not knowing Sam was lost in thought, Tenanye flipped her hair out of her face stubbornly. Turning from him, she marched to where the bed and the wall connected. Sam focused his attention back on her as she went on. "I'm not giving up on him! I just need some different supplies if we want to have any hope of helping him."

Sam ran after her, following under the massive bed until they reached an almost invisible crack in the wall. Tenanye grabbed onto a small upraised edge and started to pull. The wallpaper started to move with her motions, and Sam realized it was only disguised to look like a crack. It was a hidden door just the right size for the two of them, leading deep into the walls of the motel. A long tunnel stretched out before them, light quickly fading into blackness. Hesitantly he followed her into the darkness.

* * *

Warren found himself waking up to a small scale earthquake, body slammed into the wall of the jar as his entire world tilted around him. Blearily, he opened his eyes, trying to focus on what was happening around him in the early dawn light. Blinking a few times, the fast motion outside the jar made it impossible for a few moments for him to piece together what was happening. He pulled himself up to a standing position when the jar evened out, and as his vision finally cleared up he found himself leaping back to the far end of the jar as fast as possible. His vision was filled with two massive, angry green eyes glaring in at him. He flinched away from the wall when he saw the human's fingers wrapped around where he was standing, holding the jar tightly and easily dwarfing him. Fear filled him with the realization of how helpless he was at that moment.

Dean had the jar in his hand, holding it less than an inch away from his face. "Where is my brother?" He demanded from the fairy in a flat voice.

[Dean and Warren by Obsess-Confess](http://obsess-confess.deviantart.com/art/Dean-and-Warren-473969734)

Warren shrank away from the volume of the humans’ voice, covering his ears for protection. "What are you talking about? I've been trapped in here the whole night."

Dean put the jar back down on the table with a thud, knocking Warren over with the force. He paced back and forth in the room, aggravation practically bleeding from him. "He wasn't on the bed when I woke up! I've searched everywhere in here, and I can't find him!"

Pulling himself back to his feet, Warren braced himself against the side of the jar when his legs still wobbled. He rubbed his head in an attempt to bring his thoughts back into focus. He couldn't completely blame the human for panicking, but he was very glad he was separated from Dean by glass at the moment, even the glass of his prison. Angry human - not a good thing to be around when you're a magicless 3 inch tall fairy. Confused, he thought back to everything that had happened the night before. "Wait, I thought you were going to put him in the jar with me so he couldn't escape."

Dean glanced back over at the table from where he was crouched on the floor, trying to see under the bed. "Well, I was, but for some reason when I was doing a bit more research, I got this weird feeling, and then all of a sudden I was waking up just a few minutes ago. That's all I remember." He rubbed his face with one of his hands and sat back against the side of the bed, looking more upset than dangerous now. Warren's fear slowly drained out with the adrenaline rush from his rough wake up. From this distance, he could almost pretend Dean wasn't such a threat, slouched down as he was.

Warren paced back and forth inside the jar, finding himself torn.

 _You know you can't trust him._ His sister's voice said in his head. _We can't risk trusting them ever again. Not after what they did to us._

 _He just wants his brother back._ Warren couldn't help arguing back. _And I'm one of the reason's he lost Sam. It's MY fault this happened._

 _You can't blame yourself,_ she whispered. _You couldn't have known. It was Aelfric's idea for all this. You were just following orders, doing what a guard is supposed to do._

"Sam!" The human was on his hands and knees again, peering under the bed with a flashlight. Warren could almost feel the pain in his heartfelt cry. It was how he felt every day when he thought about his sister.

Warren ran his hands through his short hair, flustered. _I didn't have to help though. If I'd argued against this plan, it might not have ever happened. I need to fix this,_ his mind argued back to his sister. _I never wanted to put anyone else through the pain of losing their sibling._

 _I'm still alive._ She said back softly. _It's not forever._

 _It feels like it after not seeing you for 50 years._ In his mind's eye, he reached out for her arm, holding tight. Something he hadn't done in person in decades. _I miss you._

_I miss you too, kiddo._

Her image faded from his memory, leaving him alone in the jar again. After a few more moments spent watching Dean scramble on the floor, he narrowed down his options. There honestly weren't any good ones.

Warren stood up and walked to the side of the jar nearest the human, pressing his hands against the glass. "Do you want me to help find him? I might be able to see something you missed, especially if what I suspect actually happened."

Eyes narrowing suspiciously, Dean stood up and walked over to the table, looming over Warren again. "What do you suspect?"

"A rescue. Someone from where we were yesterday might have been able to get word to the Fae that live around here that we were captured by a human." He peered up at the human. "A fairy who still can touch magic might have been able to use it to put you under and 'save' your brother. Sleep spells have always been very popular against humans, or were when we could use magic. The Fae think that you'll hurt us, or sell us to the highest bidder, or something along those lines, so they'd never just sit around while we're trapped."

Warren tore his gaze away from the human briefly. _And I wish I could be sure that you won't do anything like that without your brother around..._ He knew the human had far more interest in seeing his brother safe than helping Warren out in any way after the part Warren had played in helping to shrink his brother.

"What about you? Why are you still here then if they came to rescue you?"

Warren considered the jar he was in briefly, rubbing his hand along the glass. "Isn't it obvious? Without our magic, it's not like someone can just fly in and pull me out of here. I'm stuck... "

Dean reached toward the jar, massive fingers casting a shadow over both Warren and the jar. He pasted himself against the far side of the jar, as far away from Dean as he could manage. Dean arched his eyebrows down at the tiny fairy. "Really? Still trying to get away?"

Meeting Dean's stare as best he could, Warren said, "Yeah, 'cause being shaken awake and slammed against the wall is the best way to make new friends. I'll stay here, thanks."

Smiling bitterly, Dean nodded at him. "Yeah, sorry about that." He rubbed the back of his head while he studied the jar. "But you can't help me if you're stuck in there all day, now can you?" Reaching toward it again, he lifted up the jar far slower and tilted it carefully over his other hand. "Don't make me come in there after you." The corner of his mouth quirked up in a smile.

On shaky legs, Warren walked over to the edge of the jar and considered the enormous hand below him. Gathering his courage, he jumped down the few inches, landing gracefully on the soft skin. He found this time around he was far more nervous in the human's grasp now than he'd been the night before. It was understandable after his rough wake up that morning. Dean placed the jar back on the table and walked over to the center of the room. Against his wishes, Warren found himself grabbing the thumb he was standing next to for balance as he was quickly lowered to the ground. He jumped down onto the solid ground as quick as possible, glad to be away from the human, even if it was only for a moment.

Dean's voice rumbled over him. "Don't get any plans on escaping, you're not going to be out of my sight for a second. Just take a look around and tell me if you see anything I missed."

Warren heard the human stand back up, clothes loudly rustling behind him. _Don't look, don't look, don't look._ Drawing in a deep breath he forced himself to relax. Some of the tension left his shoulders. _It won't do you any good to see him standing up from here._ Shivering at the thought of what that might look like, he took a few tentative steps away from the human and relaxed a hair more when Dean didn't move. Feeling a little better with some distance between him and Dean, he looked around the room. Carefully he sized it up from a Fae's point of view, trying to see good places to hide, places to climb, and ways to get around the room. It wasn't an easy life, being so small without magic. He fought off a brief pang, remembering life before being trapped in this world, being able to dart around the treetops with magic. Feeling the wind under his wings, freedom in the air... It was so long ago now...

He ran his eyes over the walls slowly, looking for any ways in and out of the room when you're too small to open any doors or windows. There were no cracks by the door to slip under or through, and the widows in the room were all shut tight. He hadn't seen Dean go near the window at any point since he'd been brought here, so that was out of the question. He turned slowly in a circle to get a full view of the room, doing his best to ignore the sight of Dean's immense legs when he scanned behind him. The sheer size of them made his breath catch in his throat. He had to stay focused. No distractions. The sooner he helped Dean get Sam back to normal, the sooner he could go home, maybe even go finally find his sister. He was filled with longing at that thought. He should have gone searching for her a long time ago.

Spotting a small crack in the wall next to the bed, he figured that was his best lead. Warren set off at a fast jog away from Dean. Out of nowhere the ground shook behind him, almost knocking him off balance and distracting him from his goal. Turning to see what had caused it, he gasped in surprise, tripping over his own feet. He couldn't stop himself from falling backwards to the ground. The human's boot was RIGHT THERE, mere inches away from his body, larger than a house. Dean apparently wasn't going to let him get far without supervision. His shoulders shook at how close it was and how easy it would be for Dean to accidentally step on him. At his size, he'd never be able to outrun a human.

Gulping nervously, Warren pulled himself back to his feet, looking up... and UP at the human. From this point of view, he was surprised Dean could even see him, he was so much higher in the air. He wouldn't have been able to see the human's face from this angle at all if Dean wasn't leaning over to peer down at him. Warren devoutly hoped the human wouldn't misjudge his steps and crush him.

"So jumpy," snarked the human's voice from high above. "I'm not gonna smoosh my only lead, promise. You're perfectly safe."

Warren stood his ground on shaky legs for a brief moment. "That's not as reassuring as you think from this point of view," he quipped, giving the massive boot one last look before turning away and starting up his jog again. He ignored the floor shaking behind him now that he knew what it was and wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. He still wobbled with every step Dean took, as close behind him as they were, and he still found himself praying that the human wouldn't misjudged a step. Warren crossed the rest of the room as quick as he could. He reached the wall and braced himself against it, taking a moment to slow his breathing from the adrenaline rush. Dean carefully knelt down next to where Warren was standing, looking for all the world like he wasn't trying to scare the fairy yet again and failing miserably. Dust swirled up from the humans movements and coated Warren's hair while he was still recovering.

"What is it?" Dean asked as he lowered himself down to his stomach behind Warren so he could see better.

Warren raised his arm and pointed at the chip in the paint. "Looks like someone tried to cover up an exit from the room here." He glanced briefly over his shoulder at Dean, glad the human was closer to his level. "This might be where they went." Gripping the crack in the wall, he tugged slowly. The wall started to move in a far more regular fashion than any crack in the wall should. The hole widened until Warren could fit in easily. He leaned forward, peering into the darkness. "I can't see where it leads, it's too dark."

Just as he was about to move farther into the hole for a better look, two thick fingers wrapped around his waist and chest, easily lifting him away. Dean's deep voice sounded in his ears, far too close for comfort. "Hold up there, sparky. Can't have you leaving me here."

Warren twisted around as best he could in Dean's grip, attempting to glare fearlessly into the massive eyes only a few fairy-scaled feet away. "Do you have a better idea? If you want me to find your brother, I'll have to go in there sometime."

"Yeah, sorry. That's not gonna happen." A tense smirk crossed Dean's face. "I won't be able to get you back, then I'll be stuck here without you and without my brother, and no way to find you." He gently set Warren down half a foot from the small hole and reached into his jacket, pulling out a small flashlight. He shone the light in, peering into the small hole as best he could. Warren slowly walked back over, watching the human's empty hand carefully for any movement in his direction.

He stood next to the hand holding the flashlight, trying to see what he could down the tunnel. Whatever Dean said, he still could see into the tunnel far better than the human. Spotting something glittering on the floor of the tunnel, he leaned forward again, and then stood back up quickly before Dean could think to grab him again. "There's something on the ground there," he gestured. "I should be able to reach it without going in." He met Dean's eyes until Dean slowly nodded in agreement.

"No funny business." Dean moved the hand holding the flashlight back away from the entrance, keeping his free hand close enough to grab Warren if he tried to run.

Creeping forward slowly so the human wouldn't suspect him of escaping, Warren leaned over the entrance to the tunnel. He reached his arm over the opening and snagged the glittering object in his fist. Standing quickly, he walked closer to the human, holding up a tiny charm on a golden chain. "It's an amulet." He blinked up at Dean. "And I recognize it."

Dean leaned forward, squinting to try and make out the microscopic object. "Where do you recognize it from?"

For once having a massive human hovering over him so close didn't cause any alarm in Warren. Cradling the amulet gently in his hand, Warren smiled. "It was my sisters. Our parents gave this to her long ago, when we were children and we were still in our realm. They said that as long as she had it, we'd always be together in spirit." He glanced up at the human, meeting the surprised looking green eyes without any fear. "She would have never lost this unless she meant to. She must have hoped I would be able to escape and find it here. This is her way of letting me know that she's nearby." Turning back toward the tunnel he mused to himself, "she must be the one who saved your brother."

"Yeah, well we have different definitions of 'saved.' I have to get him back to normal somehow, and this certainly ain't helping."

Warren gave a start at the tense tone of voice worriedly. He whirled toward the human, fear flooding him again for his sister's sake. "She didn't know, you can't blame her. She's just trying to help!"

Dean pushed himself up to a sitting position, once again towering over the tiny fairy. He rubbed his face. "Don't be so nervous, I'm not about to go hunt down your sister. Her heart was in the right place. It just makes my job harder is all." He held his hand out to Warren, palm up. "In the meantime, I got a good lead on that book last night before I got hit by fairy knockout gas."

Warren slipped his sisters amulet around his neck, looking down at the sparkling blue gem in its center before stepping up onto the humans hand yet again. He was getting far too used to this for comfort. This time when the hand started moving, he pulled himself down into a crouch to avoid falling over. He was placed gently back onto the table quickly enough and Dean leaned over him, hands on each side.

"If we manage to get that book, there might be a way to send you all back to your realm. Along with restoring Sammy to his pre-doll size. I can't do this without your help. So, if I help your people return home, will you do everything you can to help me save my brother?"

Warren looked up at Dean, managing to meet his eyes without any fear this time. All he could see in them was worry and hope now. He felt the rest of his nervousness start to drain out of him. Dean cared as much for his brother as Warren cared for Tenanye. If he could save both their siblings by working with a human, so be it.

"I'll do anything I can if it gets my family home."

Dean smiled down at him before drawing away and going over to the bathroom. "In that case we'll be heading to the local library once I finish up here. We've got work to do." Dean called over his shoulder as he ran the tap.

Warren jumped at that last statement. _Going to the library? With more humans?_ He couldn't stop the feeling of dread creeping up his spine.

* * *

Sam followed the tiny girl along the dark passageway for a few minutes before she came to a halt. Holding up her hand, she closed her eyes for a few silent moments of concentration before a soft blue light began to bleed from it. Sam's mouth fell open. "That's amazing!"

She opened her eyes up and peered at him curiously. "This is the least of what I can do with magic. Can't the Fae do this where you come from?"

"Ahh... I don't... think so." He rubbed his head again. "I can't really remember... anything."

Her small black eyebrows arched up. "Is that so?"

"Yeah, all I can remember so far is my name. Everything else... it hurts everytime I try. Like the worst headache you've ever had." He furrowed his brow. "I get it whenever I try to remember." Sam leaned up against the wall. "But, I keep getting this feeling that I'm not a Fae."

"What do you mean," she said, concern in her eyes. "What else could you be?" She gave him a bright smile, concern disappearing completely. Hooking his arm with hers, she pulled him down the passageway now lit by her soft blue glow.

Hesitantly, Sam pulled away from her. "It just doesn't feel right. That human, he said I was his brother. He really seemed like he believed it. I just can't shake this feeling that he might have been telling the truth."

"That's silly though. No human is our size!" She grabbed his hand and held it up, stretching her smaller one against it. The tips of her fingers reached halfway up his. "How can you be related to someone who has _fingers_ longer than you?"

"I dunno, it just feels right." Taking his hand back, he gestured down at himself. "I mean, look at what I'm wearing compared to what you're wearing."

She held up her light, casting its soft glow over both of them. Sam saw her tiny figure outlined, toned legs covered by short pants that had been woven from plant fibers, and a shirt and vest made from what appeared to be leftover scraps of clothing. It was far softer than his clothing, which he had finally realized was very close to what the human - to what Dean - had been wearing. He was even wearing a jacket with pockets like what he'd been trapped in earlier, button and all. His boots gave off a very detailed and manufactured look whilst her soft slippers had been woven from the same fibers her pants had been made from.

Tenanye turned away from him with her eyes closed, shaking her head. "Doesn't matter. You still needed rescuing, and my brother is still trapped. Whether you are a human or not is not important." Clenching her fists tightly, she glanced over her shoulder at him and winked. "And you're still pretty handsome, big guy."

"I think you're a little young for me," Sam called out, looking at her slim figure walking away from him.

"Young? I'll have you know I was over fifty years old when we first crossed over into this realm. So, you might want to think again."

Sam had to smile at that. "In that case, you look good for your age."

"I work out. Gotta keep in shape these days." She came to a halt. "Dangerous times," she said, narrowing her eyes over her shoulder at him.

He stopped next to her. "So, where are we going?" He peered around the tunnel they were in. Everything looked the same in both directions.

"Right here!" She yanked on a small crack on the wall and a small opening appeared in front of her. "This is one of my hideaways. Made for just this type of occasion."

Entering the hideaway behind her, Sam was impressed. It had all sorts of tools, rope, food supplies piled around in a semi organized fashion. Small wooden blocks were pushed against the wall, at the perfect height to use as seats. Other, longer blocks were tall enough to be used as tables, and seemed to be used as work benches. Aside from the entrance they had come into, there were no other openings in or out of the room. Probably to avoid other types of pests from getting in, such as spiders and bugs. The opening shut behind them once Sam stepped all the way in, sealing them off from the outside world.

"Here we will be safe until I figure out a way to get to my brother." She sat down on a cushion pushed in the corner of the room. "No humans have ever found any of my hiding spots so far."

Sam walked thoughtfully over to the supplies in the opposite corner. Scanning through them he made a quick inventory in his head, thinking of anything that might come in handy for the rescue later. He picked up the rope piled in the corner and a huge fishhook. "Well, these will certainly come in handy for your brother’s rescue." He smiled at her. 

She grinned back at him.


	5. The Past

"This is an awful idea."

"Maybe, but you sure as hell ain't staying in the motel room alone."

"I can't see anything, I'm not gonna be any help to you in here. What if someone sees me, or bumps against you or..."

Dean pressed his hand gently against the pocket, cutting off the fairy mid-sentence. He could still feel Warren trembling against him whenever they talked, and the fairy jumped in surprise at the pressure from the hand.

"Don't stress so much. No one will come near me, and since we're looking for a freaking fairy spell book, I'm going to need your help with it." Removing his hand, Dean opened the top of the pocket slightly and peered down at the tiny Fae huddled in a corner. "It can't be all bad, can it?"

"Yeah," Warren muttered. "Held captive by an enormous human, stuffed inside of a pocket and I can't even see the outside world at all. Life's fantastic."

Dean sighed and rubbed his forehead, growing tired of the argument. "I'm not going to button it up this time so you should be able to see out if you want. Just no funny business, no trying to 'escape from the big, scary human.' I don't have time to go chasing after you. Once I get this book, I'm going to need your help to read it." He let go of the pocket flap and stood up. Standing in front of the mirror of the motel, he couldn't see any sign that there was a fairy hiding in one of his pockets. Warren was small enough there wasn't even a telltale bump. _Good._

Dean headed out to the Impala parked right outside, doing his best to ignore the tiny fairy in his pocket now. It was still just as awkward to have someone just chillin' in there. He turned the car toward the local library. On the way, he thought of a question for Warren. "Have you seen this book before?"

His pocket shifted and the flap opened as Warren peeked out of it at Dean. "Once. Before Akar took it."

"Will you recognize it if you see it?"

"Yeah, it's pretty distinctive. Very thick, tall. Black leather bound with gold laced pages and gold inlay on the cover. It should be easy to spot."

"Alright, once we get to the library, keep an eye out for it. So we don't miss it. You'll have a better shot of spotting it than I will."

Warren disappeared back into the pocket with a unenthusiastic "Sure" sent Dean's way.

Dean rubbed his head again. He couldn't wait to be done with the fairies and have his brother back.

* * *

Warren slumped back down into the darkness of the pocket. He found himself wishing fervently that his sister had been able to rescue him when she'd got Sam away. Lucky bastard. It was undignified to not be able to get out of something as simple as a jar or a pocket. Embarrassing.

He traced the markings on the amulet hanging around his neck. He could remember the day that Tenanye had gotten it. She had been so excited to celebrate her name day that year, the first year that their father had come home from the war with the dark fairies. He had brought home the sapphire used to make the amulet with him from the war, and had the dwarves work their magic to create the magical chain the amulet was bound too. Her face had lit up the forest when it was placed around her neck.

He smiled, leaning his head against the side of the pocket. His brief isolation gave him time to indulge the memories he'd suppressed. Her smile had always been able to light up his day. She had always been so happy and carefree compared to the other fairies. Nothing had ever dampened her spirits, not war, not being stranded in this strange world cut off from their own. She always just smiled and went on with life as normal. Even if 'normal' wasn't so normal anymore.

He was shaken from his thoughts when the roar of the car was silenced outside. Gravity pushed him down into the pocket briefly, and then he began to sway to the cadence of Dean's footsteps. Pulling himself up slowly enough so the human hopefully wouldn't feel him moving, he pushed open the lip of the pocket just high enough to see out. He couldn't see much of the outside world, but he did catch sight of a huge building that Dean was approaching. It had the look of a small, red castle. Warren was rattled when Dean shoved open a massive door at the entryway. He felt some jealousy creep in at the ease with which the human did that. If only his people could go home... everything could get back to normal. They wouldn't be so helpless anymore. Finally things would be easier again. Then he got a look at the inside of the library and his jaw dropped open, losing his train of thought.

Sunlight streamed through tall, elegant stained glass windows. It gave the entire area the look of being bathed in gem light. It was all so much like the cities back home, he had to close his eyes to push away the sudden homesickness that threatened to overwhelm him. He saw other humans walking around the library, either holding books or glancing through the shelves. Warren let the lip of the pocket drop so he wouldn't be spotted. The last thing he needed was more humans getting a look at a fairy. One was already too much to handle.

After a few more minutes of walking around, the movement stopped. Dean's huge voice echoed softly around Warren. "So, here we are. Let me know if you spot anything."

Warren peeked out of the pocket again nervously. A huge bookshelf was directly in front of the human. He started scanning the shelves as quickly as he could, trying to ignore the sight of Dean's huge hands as the human pushed through a few of the volumes there. Time passed at a crawl while they both browsed through the books in the library. Once in a while Dean would move to a new bookshelf. Warren wished he was able to do more. He couldn't even tell Dean when he was done scanning a shelf with all the other humans around.

After going through at least half of the shelves in the library, Dean was digging through books right under the stained glass windows. Warren couldn't stop himself from glancing up at them occasionally, feeling a sense of longing fill him. Suddenly he caught a flash of gold out of the corner of his eye. Excitedly, he pounded on the wall of Dean's chest, hoping the human would take the hint.

Warren felt relieved when the top of the pocket opened up and the huge green eyes peeked down at him curiously. He gestured enthusiastically toward where he had caught the flash of gold, careful to not make any noise. The flap closed on him and he felt the human moving in the direction he'd pointed.

He slouched back down in the corner for support as the human started to move about more rapidly. All the motion around him was disorienting. Up until that point Dean had apparently been taking more care with his movements. Now he was on the move fast. Warren stayed that way until he felt his stomach drop again and heard the car engine start up again. He pushed up the flap once he was sure there was no one else around.

"Did you find it?" He asked hopefully.

Dean glanced down at the pocket. "Yep, got it right here." He patted a brown paper bag next to him. "Once we get back to the motel, it's time to get some spells from this bad boy."

Once they arrived back at the room, the flap above Warren's head opened up and a massive hand crowded into the pocket. Long fingers gently wrapped around his body and he was lifted up and placed down on the table next to the bag with the book in it. Warren took a deep breath once he was freed of the stifling pocket. He stretched his arms over his head, glad the trip to the library had been fairly short. Pocket travel was nothing to write home about. He stood back as Dean pulled out the massive, ancient tome and placed it in the center of the table. Walking over to the book, he rubbed his hands along the gold inlay on the cover. "Yes.... this is it," He said, closing his eyes. He could FEEL the magic that the book contained in it. It felt like... home.

He bounded out of the way when Dean's hands suddenly overshadowed him, opening up the cover to the first page. Delicate gold script covered the thick parchment inside. Warren found himself leaning over the book in order to see what the writing said, and even then, it wasn't easy the way the text was stretched away from him. He tried hoisting himself up on the book slightly to try and see better. Without warning, the shadow of Dean's hand came back, this time scooping up Warren without any warning. Warren found himself trying to scramble away in surprise. He was shocked when the human simply lifted him up to his shoulder. Warren found Dean looking at him out of the corner of his eye with a smile. "Won't it be a little easier to read from here?"

Warren nodded in shock before scrambling out of the hand onto the broad shoulder. He grabbed onto the raised collar of Dean's shirt for support, breathing heavily from the surprise. From his new vantage point, he found himself high enough to see the entire page they were looking at without a problem.

"So, can you read any of this crap?" Dean asked while they considered the page together, which was covered in an elegant, foreign script. Each of the letters was expertly scribed in gold ink, with gems outlining the page. Warren recognized the style from his realm. The dwarves had created it long ago, their love of gems and gold making them craft it in all things, even books and clothing. They had even found ways to bind the gold into hair, obsessed with creating beauty everywhere.

"Uh, yea, of course. It's in ancient Gnommish. That's our most common written language in the realm I'm from." Warren leaned slightly over to see better. "So reading it won't be a problem."

"Alright. So, I'm gonna grab a notebook. Keep track of anything you translate for me." The human pushed himself up to a standing position, Warren clinging desperately to his shirt collar and doing his best not to fall off. Grabbing the ancient tome and a notebook from his pile of stuff across the room, Dean settled on the bed, leaning his back against the wall. Once he was done moving, Warren was able to release the collar from his death grip and sit down on the shoulder without fear of being tossed off.

For a while, all they were able to work on was flipping through the book and translating the names of the spells it contained. Dean carefully marked down the number of the page each spell was found on as well as the spell name in his blocky handwriting. Some pages contained stories from Warren's realm as well as lessons in history, alchemy and even more bizarre crafts. One of Warren's favorites that they passed was the linking of the fairy realms, something he had only ever heard rumors about. He'd have to go back to that when everything was over and read it in depth. To be able to travel from realm to realm was a mystery that they had thought long thought lost to the depredations of time.

The spells began to get more complex the further into the volume they got. The beginning chapters started out with small enchantments. _The Blooming of a Flower. The Language of the Birds._ Following those chapters were what Warren could only describe as intermediate spells. _The Transmutation of Gold. The Blessing of Strength._ Dean liked that one until they discovered it required the blood of a virgin.

"Why do so many rituals need virgin blood?" Dean muttered as he wrote that down on the page.

Warren shrugged. "True innocence is hard to come by in any world. That makes it powerful and valuable."

Dean sighed, looking down at all the spells they had translated thus far. They were a little more than halfway into the book. "Let’s take a snack break before we get any further into this." Standing, he scooped Warren off of his shoulder before he toppled off from the quick movements and placed him down on the bed next to the massive book.

Warren watched as the human walked toward the mini fridge. It still made him nervous to be around Dean, but he could feel some of the fear starting to dissipate. It felt odd to start... trusting... any human. Once the loss of magic had truly began to be a problem, the Fae had begun to have difficulty staying out of sight. He remembered being captured and placed in a birdcage for a week, poked at by a six year old child before his sister had been able to find and rescue him.

Being one of the last to use magic, she had been the one to open the lock that had been placed on the cage and Warren had scrambled out of as fast as his legs could carry him. He'd been covered in bruises and cuts from when the child had pulled him out of the cage. And the boy had just been curious, not sadistic like the human that had captured Warren's sister before she had moved away.

He closed his eyes against the memories of her lying there... broken. The man had snapped both of her arms, crushing her ribs. He had slowly rubbed iron along her back, causing massive burns all over, and had sliced up parts of her legs. They never even found any reason for it aside from he did it because he could. Bastard. Warren had never wanted to hurt someone more, but all they were able to do was free her... barely in time to save her life. When he was carrying her home the most heartbreaking part happened...

_He scoops her up into his arms, trying so hard not to cause her any more pain. Tenanye moans when her ribs are crushed into her as he shifts her into a position for carrying. Warren smiles down at her and tries to reassure her. "We're almost home, Ten. I've got you. I won't let you go."_

_She looks up at him, tiny crystal tears glistening in her eyes. She tries to lift her arm up and has to let it drop back down, as she hisses in pain. "You're ok." She smiles up at him, her voice cracking. "I didn't want you to worry...” Her head slumps to the side as she passes out from the agony she's in, leaving Warren staring down at her in disbelief. She never seems to take any notice of herself, giving everything she has for him and the others..._

She had moved away from him and everyone else after she'd recovered. She had chosen to live farther out than any other fairy in their small community, able to stay in touch only with her waning magic. And like everyone else, the more she used it, the less she had. In the end, even she, who had been the most powerful of them all, would run out of magic.

And here he was, after all of that. Trusting a human. _Wanting_ the human to succeed. And so far, the human had been more reliable than alot of other fairies that Warren knew. His world felt like it was being tipped on its head. He felt awful now for being a part of taking Dean's brother away. Sam seemed like a nice guy, and Dean was as devoted a brother as Warren had ever tried to be. Nothing was going the way it was supposed to have. It felt like everything he knew was crumbling around him. If only his sister was here...she'd know what to do.

* * *

"I have no idea what to do."

Hands on her hips, Tenanye stood in the semi-darkness, staring down Sam. They'd spent the last few hours arguing about what they should do next. Sam wanted to wait until nightfall, sneak back into the motel room and try to grab Warren out from the jar. Tenanye was getting more and more antsy throughout the day, torn between wanting to just get back to the motel room and trying to save him on the spot and waiting until nightfall when everyone was asleep. Sam had so far talked her out of storming off after her brother four times that day. Now, she'd just started venting about everything that had gone wrong so far.

"I don't have enough juice to knock Dean out again if we go after him tonight and he's still awake. You think that you'll be able to get Warren out of the jar with those supplies, but you've never done anything like this before so we don't even know what can go wrong there. And, to top it all off, we don't know whether or not you are a human, or if this Dean is even your brother. So there's a 50/50 chance he'll either be willing to help you or just dump you back in the jar with Warren. And me."

Sam watched her pace back and forth for the millionth time that day. The hours stretch on, slowly crawling by with them sitting in a tiny room with nothing to do all day.

She glanced over at Sam. "I NEED to save him. I can't let him down after all he's done for me." The pleasing I'm her voice caught him off guard. She sounded on the brink of tears.

Sam walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulders. "Your brother is going to be fine. I know one thing, and that's that Dean is not going to let anything happen to him."

A skeptical glare crossed her face. "You don't even remember IF he's really your brother, but you think you know him human well enough to know what he'll do?"

Sam sighed. "It's just this feeling I have. I don't think we have anything to fear from him."

Tenanye put her hand on his chin, forcing him to meet her eyes. "YOU might not have anything to fear from him. That doesn't necessarily include all of us. Humans are humans and humans can't be trusted."

Sam found himself studying her eyes and saw something that hadn't been there before. "What happened to you?" He said softly.

She broke away from his stare. "Nothing I ever want to remember."

"So, do you trust me? Even if I end up being a human?" Sam said, considering what she said about not trusting humans. After all, if his suspicions were right, he was just as human as Dean. He just happened to be the same size as her. For now.

The mischievous look came back into her eyes when she glanced back at him. "Only on days that end with a y." She said with a wink. He smiled back at the flirting, unsure if it was real or just a way of hiding her true feelings. He gently held her arms and tilted her chin so their gazes met.

"Well, if that's true, you need to relax. We won't be able to help anyone if you're panicking. Warren will be fine. How about we go back to the motel room they're in and scout it out quickly. We'll make sure Warren is alright and we can plan for tonight. That way we know what we're getting into ahead of time."

"I like that idea." She smiled at him, back to her cheerful self. "It's a date."

* * *

Still lost in his thoughts on the gigantic motel room bed, Warren lay back on the pillow he'd been left by while Dean was away doing whatever it was humans did. He kept his eyes trained on the human, still unwilling to let down his guard. After all...

"Hey, Warren!"

Warren practically jumped out of his skin at the feminine voice coming from behind him. Adrenaline surged, almost like an electric shock. He twisted around in place and saw... his sister, Tenanye. She was standing behind him, using the pillow as a shield so the human couldn't see her.

"Oh my god, Ten!" He reached toward her.

"Wait, Warren." He froze at the serious tone in her voice, something he almost never heard from her. "If he sees you looking at me, I'll get captured." She smiled sadly at that. "I just wanted to make sure you were ok. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you last night." Her smile fades, tears glistening at the corner of her eyes. "Almost all my magic is gone."

Warren pulled his gaze away from her. "I know." He glanced quickly toward Dean, watching the human finish getting the salad together and starting on the pizza. Time was running out. He turned back to her while the humans back was toward them. "We found the spell book."

She stared back at him in amazement. "THE book? You actually found it?"

"Yeah, and Dean's trying to find a way to send us back to our realm, and a way to make his brother human again and give him back his memories." He saw Ten's eyes widen at this statement. "What?"

"So he is a human," she stated, watching him for confirmation. Her excitement drained away.

"Yeah, Aelfric found this spell that can change a human to a Fae, and he's been using it to try to get the human's to understand us. That way they might not try to capture us so much. When he used it on Sam and Dean, it backfired and shot out the kids’ memories instead of replacing them. And it didn't affect Dean at all." Warren sighed and leaned back against the pillow keeping his eyes on the human. "As far as we can tell, the spell won't let Sam remember anything at all. Every time he tried when I was around, he held his head like he had a migraine."

She sighed briefly, then focused back on why she was here. "Tonight, we'll be able to get you out. I've got something to get you out of that jar. I just need the human to fall asleep on his own tonight. I don't have enough juice left to knock him out again."

Warren caught her eye. "No. You can't."

"Of course I can! If it's about the risk, I don't care about that, you know that..."

He shook his head quickly. "That's not what I mean, I know you'd do anything to save me." He met her eyes. "Just like I'd do anything for you. I want to help Dean."

"You...what?" She gasped.

"I know how you feel about them. Hell, I feel the same after... what happened the last time I saw you. But Dean... I think he's really going to help us go home. He seems so... different than the other humans we've run into. He reminds me so much of Garin. And he's going into this blind. Without me to help him with this book, he won't be able to save any of us. Or his brother. I helped get him into this, I should help get him out."

He dared twisting around completely to look at his sister when her silence stretched out. Her face had turned whiter than it usually was. "Ten..."

"I'm sorry," she said with a whisper. "I... I've gotta go..." She backed away from him. "I just can't... he's... a human. I can't... "

"I know," he said. "I understand. But, if there's even a chance that we can go home, I'm going to take it." He turned back to the room. "You should go. But..." He looked back at her with hope in his eyes, "not too far?"

She went over to the side of the bed and started her climb down. "You know where I'll be."


	6. Trust

Sam stood waiting for Tenanye at the base of the bed. They'd decided that since she was the faster climber, he would wait on the floor for her to get back. They only had a tiny window of opportunity to get to Warren before Dean would get back, and she didn't want to waste it worrying that Sam was too slow to climb up, or to slow to get away from Dean if they were spotted.

The thought of Dean had Sam peering toward the human's feet from under the bed. He still wanted to know what the human had meant, if they truly were brothers. And if they were, why was he so much smaller? Why had Dean tried to capture him? He remembered the overpowering fear he had felt in the humans’ hand, powerless to escape. He never wanted to feel that again.

His head ached at these thoughts. Every time he tried to think about Dean, it would hit him. It was like the headaches were connected to Dean or something.

He was standing right next to the secret entrance to the walls of the motel, that way if anything went wrong he'd be able to escape before being captured again. Tenanye didn't want to risk all of them being captured. She'd also given him a small map, with directions to other fairies hiding nearby that he could go to for help if anything was to go wrong.

After a little while waiting, Sam saw the tiny girl scaling down the bed. He smiled, glad to see she was alright. It only took her a few moments to reach the floor. He stepped toward her, hoping to find out how Warren was. She blew right by him, not slowing down a bit when she passed him. He saw a look of determination on her face when she passed him.

Sam ran to catch up with Tenanye. It was like he wasn't even there. She just kept walking, moving far faster than anyone that small should be able to move without breaking into a run. Sam let his long legs start to close the distance between them as they both crossed back into the dark passageway.

"Tenanye, wait up! What's wrong?" Sam finally caught up to her a few moments later and snagged her arm. Wheeling her around, he held her by both shoulders. "Did something happen?"

She looked at him at last, and he was shocked to see her eyes glistening with unshed tears. He lowered his voice. "Are you alright?"

She tried to pull out of his grip unsuccessfully. Sam held on stubbornly. "I just want to help," he said gently, brushing her hair out of her face.

She hissed at these words. "You can't help me." Changing tactics, she stomped down on his foot, digging in her heel. Sam shouted in pain and she managed to pull away from him, running in the direction of her hideout. Cursing, Sam gave chase.

For such a little thing, she was damn fast. Sam barely caught up to her before she got to her hideout. He had to semi-tackle her, to stop her from going inside without him. In the mood she was in, he wouldn’t have been surprised to end up locked outside. "Let me go!" She spat at him. Sam yanked her into the hideout and released her. Tenanye stalked away from him to the other side of the room. She sat down and glared at him with her arms crossed.

Sam sighed and leaned against the wall. "Why are you running from me?"

"Did something happen with your brother? Is he okay?" He furrowed his brow. "Did Dean do something?"

She huffed at him.

_Women._

Sam walked over to her and gave her his best puppy dog eyes. "Tell me what happened. I just want to help."

She defrosted a little. "My brother...he told me it's true."

"What's true?"

"You're a human, and Dean is your brother. So, I didn't really save you from that human." She leaned away from him. "I pretty much kidnapped you from your family. That must be why you weren't trapped with my brother." Sadness was painted across her face, regret at her actions.

At this revelation, Sam found himself sinking down into the seat next to her. "My brother..." His headache started right back up again, pounding at the revelation. He glanced over at her. "You didn't know." He held his head with both hands. "But... why did you run from me?"

She shifted away from him, wrapping her arms around her legs. "You're a human. I...I can't ever trust humans again. Not after what happened to my brother and me."

Sam gazed at her in confusion. "What happened to you?" He moved over slightly, and gently rubbed her shoulder with his hand.

She stared a long time at his hand before going on. "My brother... he was caught by a child. It took me over a week to free him. When we got him out of the cage at last, he was in awful condition. Bruises all over his body, two ribs cracked. That was just from one child wanting to 'play.'" She closed her eyes, remembering. "I took too long to save him. I couldn't forgive myself for letting him down like that."

Sam pulled her into a gentle embrace. Halfheartedly she tried to pull away again but gave up and sagged like all of her energy had dissipated. He softly tilted her head, meeting her eyes. He could see in her face that there was more to the story. "And...what happened to you?"

Tears brimmed in her eyes again. She pulled away out of his arms and turned her back. Before Sam could ask her what she was doing, she gripped both sides of her shirt and pulled it up slowly to reveal her back. Sam's breath caught in his throat. Her entire back was covered in a pattern of burn scars. There was no part of it that was untouched by the blemishes. Putting the shirt back down, she pulled up the leg of her pants, showing scars crisscrossing up her entire leg. She turned back toward him, sending a halfhearted glare his way. "Happy now?"

It took Sam a few moments to get his breath back from her revelation. He reached out to her leg, gently tracing the scars crisscrossing it with a fingertip. "W-why would anyone do that to you?"

"Because he could." She rubbed her hand up and down her arm. "Because it was _fun_. That's all I could ever come up with. I never even got a good look at the guy who did this. He had his face covered and wore gloves whenever he came near me." She slumped down onto the seat. "I moved away after it happened. I couldn't be there anymore...too many bad memories. The last time I saw my brother before today was a month after our portal closed, right when he rescued me from the human. There are very few fairies who live in this area. So I've kept to myself ever since then. It's easier that way. I only see others if they get caught." She gave a small smile at that. "I am, after all, the resident expert at escaping from humans."

Sam felt his heart shatter. The poor girl had spent so long away from her people, alone with only those awful memories for company, he wondered how she still managed to be so cheerful all the time. He wrapped his long arms around her, and this time she didn't try to pull away.

"You don't have to be afraid anymore," he whispered in her ear. She closed her eyes, leaning into him.

They sat together like that for hours.

* * *

After three more long hours of listening to Warren translate, Dean had hand cramps from writing down the translations from the book. He and Warren had been going at it for at least six hours total so far. They were finally nearing the end of the book, and Dean couldn't help but worry as they ran out of possibilities for a counter spell. What if his brother was stuck like this? Sam couldn't be a hunter at three inches tall, even if he could get back his memories. The weakest monsters they hunted on a day to day basis would make child's play of his extra little brother. And Dean knew from experience that his brother would never willingly stop hunting. This whole size problem thing was going to give him an anxiety attack.

Out of nowhere Warren jumped up, catching Dean off guard. His tiny feet bounced on Dean's shoulder. "That's it, that's the spell!" He exclaimed. " _Reversal of Fate!_ It locks onto one spell caster, and will undo any and all spells he cast that are still active."

Dean carefully kept himself from flinching in surprise when Warren jumped up. The feeling of the tiny feet on his shoulder was going to take getting used too. Warren had been sitting there long enough that he should have been at least a little more used to it, but it was so weird feeling someone move against his neck or shoulder. He didn't want to accidentally toss Warren off, especially since Warren was finally not terrified whenever he saw Dean. He had no desire to destroy what little trust he'd finally managed to build, especially when he still needed Warren's help so much.

"So, what do we need for this spell to work its mojo?" Dean asked thoughtfully, getting back on task. He rubbed his hand over his chin.

"Uh, pretty standard stuff for fairy spells, buttercup petals, shell of a robin’s egg, a few herbs. It's the last two that will be hard to get. The spell must be run by _magic of the Fae_ and cast using blood of the spell caster whose spells you are reversing." Warren glanced over at Dean, worried. "I've never even _seen_ Akar."

Dean scooped the tiny fairy off his shoulder in a fist as he stood up from the bed. He ignored the tiny cry of surprise that leaked out from between his fingers. "I've got a few ideas on how we can track him down. But, didn't you say almost none of your people can use magic anymore? Who's gonna cast the spell?" He dropped Warren off at the table and went over to the laptop.

After steadying himself on the table again after his unexpected trip, Warren glanced over at Dean. "My sister. Or Aelfric. They're the last two able to still cast spells now." He paced back and forth while Dean opened the laptop up and loaded up the internet.

"So, why can they still use magic while the rest of you are cut off?" Dean asked, finding that odd.

"Well, Aelfric was the last fairy to cross over to this world. He came right when the gate shut down. So he had more magic than the rest of us at the time. The longer we spent away from our world, the less we had, and once the portal closed the magic drained exponentially faster. My sister, on the other hand... she's special. No one was stronger than her before everything that happened." He stared down at his hands and sighed deeply. "She had the most to lose when we got cut off."

Dean found himself thinking that was a strange thing to say about Warren's sister. _Didn't all of them lose everything when they were trapped here?_ He was distracted from those thoughts when the computer finally finished loading. "Hey, do you know what Akar's last name was?"

"No, no one ever mentioned any last name."

"Hopefully Akar isn't a popular name around here then," Dean muttered. He spent the next few minutes searching the internet. A hit came up in the area quicker than he thought. "Hey, here's something. Akar Rapp, taken in for theft back in the fifties. Disappeared from custody a day before his trial. Hasn't been heard from since." Dean scanned through the rest of the information quickly. "Here's a mug shot."

The mug shot loaded slowly. Dean's mouth went dry. "Son of a bitch..." He muttered as he got a good look at the thief.

"What is it?" Warren walked around the computer so he could see the screen. He stopped breathing as soon as he saw the picture looking back at him. "No way, that's not possible."

A spitting image of Aelfric was staring back at them.

* * *

"So what is this? If I didn't know better, I'd say it looks like a fairy is the reason you got stranded here. But why would a fairy cut themselves off from magic?" Dean sat back in the chair, taking a long pull from his beer.

"I don't know, it doesn't make any sense." Warren was still pacing back and forth on the table restlessly. He hadn't been able to stop since seeing the picture of Akar staring out at him from the laptop. Dean was starting to feel restless just watching him. "Akar was around long before 'Aelfric' ever showed up. We never saw Aelfric before the portal closed."

A horrible thought occurred to Dean. "Can a human... _become_ a fairy? Magic and all?"

Warren shrugged, "I've never heard of it happening before. I guess anything is possible. After all, we have a spell that shrinks a human down to our size. But where would he have gotten the magic from? We're born with it, it's imbued in every part of our world. But here, magic is a very scarce commodity."

Dean arched his eyebrow thoughtfully. "Maybe he _stole_ it. Just like he stole that book and trapped you here. Maybe that's why your people suddenly don't have magic. Being stranded here might not have anything to do with it. He might have _taken_ it from you. That's why Aelfric still has magic."

Warren rubbed his face with a hand. "But... all this time... he's been with us all these years..." Angrily, he kicked the bottle cap sitting on the table near him. It skidded toward Dean.  

Dean put his hand down on the table, stopping the bottle cap. It was still so weird to see how big normal items that Dean was around all day were to Warren. Carefully he refocused his thoughts back to the job. "So, do your people live in the basement of that house?"

"Why do you want to know?" Warren said suspiciously.

"Well, if we get this asshat's blood and manage to get this spell going, we'll need to get your people through the portal. And, any humans you've abducted will need to be in an open area for when they grow back to normal size. Otherwise, _squish._ And I'm trying to save these people, not give them even bigger problems to worry about."

The tiny Fae turned away from Dean and walked a few steps away. "You... have to understand it's not something I should share with any outsider." He paused and glanced back. "And to be honest, you still scare the crap outta me, just so you know."

Dean sighed ruefully at that. "I seem to have that effect on a lot of people. Usually they think I'm threatening them when I'm just trying to save their lives." He gave a small shrug. "So, it's not just you."

Warren actually laughed at that. "Yeah, well. I'm just saying that if things go wrong because I tell you where we live, I'll be exiled at the very least. My people aren't exactly known for being forgiving. I'm trusting my future to you if I tell you."

Dean leaned forward to meet Warren's tiny eyes. He tried to ignore it when Warren still stepped away from him nervously. "You have my word. All I want to do is help these people, and get everything back to the way it should be."

Warren exhaled slowly. "Most of my people live around that house. We moved there when the last family left. It seemed to be a good place to stick together, isolated and sheltered and a whole lot safer than the houses people were still in, which was where we were before. We have tunnels built throughout the area. There are living areas, places to work... an entire community hidden away. We came through one of those tunnels right before Aelfric..." pausing, he took a deep breath, "AKAR shrank your brother. The rest of my people are scattered around the area, like my sister staying here. It'll take time to get them all back to that house, I would need to contact them all."

Dean thought back. "So that's what that hole in the wall was that Sam almost ran in before I caught him." He sat back, giving Warren a bit more space. "Do you have a way to get there? We're pretty far away, and unless you got some rocket powered wings hiding on you I don't think you'll be able to get there without help."

"We have our ways. There are a few spells that can be accomplished with an already enchanted talisman, and one of them is teleportation. Every Fae that lives this far away has a teleportation amulet. It helped us spread out without fear of being separated permanently."

"Well alright then." Dean stood up and slapped his legs. "I'll get the spell ingredients, and you'll round up your people." He reached his hand over to Warren. This time he waited patiently until Warren climbed on instead of just scooping him up. Once Warren was settled on his palm, he raised the hand up so they could see eye to eye, if only for a moment. He needed Warren's trust more than ever. "I need you to get my brother, your sister, everyone else you can to that house. I'll meet you there in say, five hours. Shouldn't take me any longer than that to get everything ready."

Unable to hide his surprise at this, Warren said, "You trust me alone? I thought you said earlier you didn't want to lose track of me, since I'm your only link to your brother."

A grim look passed over Dean's face. "There's no way for me to do this without you. And, I trust you to do what's right. We need each other for this. Without my help, there's no way back for your people, and without your help the people who've been kidnapped will stay lost. Including my brother. We're in this boat together."

Dean walked over to the side of the bed and lowered his hand to where the entrance to the tunnel was. He watched Warren hop off his hand and walk in, his small form disappearing quickly into the dark.

_I hope I'm doing the right thing here._

After all, he had no other options.

* * *

Sam had fallen asleep with Tenanye laying against him and was sitting peacefully in the dark when out of nowhere, the door to her hideout banged open. He couldn't help jumping up in shock at the unexpected noise.

Tenanye rubbed her head gently as she was woken up by Sam's movements. "What the hell was that..." she muttered under her breath as she sat up. Their gazes were drawn toward the doorway, where a small bit of light was trickling in. Ten held up her hand, the blue glow springing up around her hand to light up the dark figure outlined at the entrance. Once the light hit him, Ten gasped. "Warren!"

She bounced up out of the seat she'd been sharing with Sam and slammed into Warren with a massive hug. Sam found himself smiling at her infectious happiness. Warren hugged her back, holding her firmly to his chest. Over her head, he raised his eyebrows at Sam. Sam's smile quirked at that. So he hadn't missed how they'd been sitting together when he'd come in.

Warren pried his sister off of him after a few more moments of hugging, and stared into her eyes. "How are you holding up, Ten?"

She wiped a few small tears from the corners of her eyes and smiled weakly at him. "So much better now that you're here. What happened? How did you get away? Does the human know you're gone?" Her entire body shook with a sense of anticipation while she was standing. Like she was on the edge of a cliff working up the nerve to jump off.

Warren laughed as he pulled slightly out of the hug. "Calm down, take a breath. I'll explain everything." He straightened up away from her, brushing the wrinkles off of his shirt from the embrace. He studied Sam for a long moment before beginning to speak. "Well, it is a bit of a long story..." Ignoring Sam and Tenanye's growing amazement, Warren outlined everything that had happened with the human while they had been hiding here. And then...

"Aelfric _is_ Akar?!" Ten breathed, shock on her face. "That's not possible!"

"We don't know how he managed it yet, but if we want this to have a snowflake's chance in hell of succeeding, we need to find him. Without his blood our counterspell is useless, and soon even you won't have any magic left. We really will be trapped here then." He met Ten's gaze solidly. "Maybe that's why you and Aelfric never saw each other in person. He may have avoided you all this time because you would be able to see through his disguise."

"Wait," Sam interrupted, growing confused. "Why would Tenanye be able to see through his disguise while no one else can?"

Both fairies jumped a little in surprise at his interruption. Warren cleared his throat uncertainly. "Ah... Ten here, is a little... different." He gazed down at his sister for a moment before she nodded back at him. "She's the first fairy in over a hundred years now whose growth in magic didn't taper off when she reached adulthood. If we hadn't been trapped, her magic would have continued to grow over and above that of any other fairy in the realm and she would have ascended to become Queen."

Sam felt his throat dry. "You're a....Queen?" He looked over at her in disbelief.

"No, but one day I may be." She gazed down at the floor. "If we ever get back home."

Warren gently squeezed her arm. "We will get back there. And soon. We have a plan." He glanced over at Sam. "Dean sent me to get everyone rounded up and in that house for when we cast that spell."

Ten brushed herself off and walked over to the wall. She pulled a clear blue staff from behind the seat and glanced over at Warren and Sam. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Sam looked at the staff in surprise. "What's that? I've never seen anything like it!" And it was beautiful. It looked like it had been grown, beautiful twists and arches flowing straight up the shaft and ending at the top with a gorgeous blue bloom, sparkling in the light from Ten's hand.

She hefted it up in the air. "It's a focus. I can concentrate my magic through it, and my spells become far stronger. If it's true that I'm the one needed for this reversal spell, I'll need all the help I can get. My magic is becoming so faint I might be useless without this." The blue light emanating from her palm moved up the staff, illuminating the bloom with far more power than before.

Warren grabbed rope and the fishhook from the corner of the room, and met his sister by the door of the room. They both realized at the same time that Sam hadn't moved an inch to prepare, since Warren had finished his story.

"What are you waiting for?" Ten said curiously.

Sam cleared his throat. "I'm... not going."

Warren shot a glare over his sisters’ head at Sam. "Oh, hell no. There is no way we are going without you. Last thing we need is to piss off your brother right when he's helping us."

Sam held his hands out in a placating gesture. "No, you don't understand. I'm not going to avoid him. I... have this weird feeling like he needs my help. I'm gonna go back to the motel room. It just doesn't feel right, going on without him."

Warren gave him a long look, assessing what he saw. He nodded after a moment. "Ok, but be careful. He might be your brother but he's still dangerous if he doesn't see you. We're just too small compared to him." Sam gave a solemn nod at this, knowing it was true.

Ten bounced over and hugged him, so small next to him that her arms wrapped around him barely above his waist. Sam hugged her gently back. "Don't you dare be late," she whispered to him with a wink. "I'll be waiting for you."

* * *

Sam stood at the exit of the tunnel, staring into the enormous motel room. He'd almost got lost in the walls of the motel, it was pitch black in the depths of the motel. The tiny flashlight he'd found hidden in his jacket had done almost nothing to dispel the dark. In the end he'd made it, finding the hidden door to the room. It was even the _right_ room. Discovering the motel was practically a labyrinth had been fun. Tenanye's directions had luckily been precise, once he'd found the flashlight to see where he was going.

He still had his doubts about what he was about to do. It went against every instinct he had in him to bring himself to trust a human. If he was wrong about this, everything could all go horribly wrong. The headache was still raging in him, warning him to stay as far away from the human as possible. Even with the headache and every instinct warning him away, there was still a small part of him that wouldn't shut up, telling him that he could trust Dean. That he NEEDED to trust Dean.

After standing there in the shadows, frozen for minutes that felt more like lifetimes, he hesitantly took his first step out of the safety of the tunnel. He could feel how vulnerable he was the moment he was away from the safety of the darkness.

Everything was so far away, and towered above him. The ceiling was practically a mile above his head. He wasn't even tall enough to reach the underside of the bed without help or climbing. To his right sat two massive boots, overshadowing him and the entrance to the tunnel. Shoelaces as thick as his legs were draped on the floor. A chill ran up his spine when he passed by the boots. _Holy shit..._ The thought of how easy it would be for him to get stepped on without even being noticed sped up his gait. The last thing he needed was for this to go south right when everything was coming together. He remembered Warrens' words of warning, knowing the truth in them.

He scanned the rest of the room steadily as he walked far enough out to see everything. In the background he could hear running water coming from far off. _Must be in the shower._ If he hurried, he could get somewhere easily visible before Dean came back out. He scoured the room for the best place to go. The bed didn't seem safe, or any of the chairs. Anything that might be sat on, really. Although maybe he could get onto the nightstand if he jumped from the bed. And maybe not. From this angle, he couldn't tell how close together they stood and if he'd even be able to reach the nightstand. The distances were distorted by his size. For all he knew he'd be taking a dive off the side of the bed.

He spotted the best place once he got past the bed. One of the chairs next to the table had a massive jacket draped over it, a long sleeve brushing against the ground, and the chair was shoved up against the table. _Perfect._ He could climb up the jacket and pull himself over onto the table. It seemed to be the safest place to get Dean's attention from.

He sped up into a jog. He wanted to be on that table before Dean came out, and from the look of things, climbing was going to be a bitch. He reached the sleeve of the jacket and looked up. From this angle, it looked more like the side of a cliff. Straight up. He gulped in anticipation and started his climb. Hauling himself up the sleeve was a lot harder than climbing down the bed had been yesterday. Luckily, the fibers of the jacket were coarse and easy to grip at his size, giving him plenty of leverage on his way up. The hardest part was there was no purchase for his feet while scaling the jacket, so he had to rely almost completely on his arms. They quickly began to burn from the workout.

Heaving himself up to the top of the chair with a huff, Sam paused. He could've sworn he'd just heard something... He glanced around the room worriedly. It was almost like a scuffling sound. He heard it again. It was like... someone was picking the lock of the door! His heart practically jumped out of his chest. Talking to Dean was one thing, Sam felt like he could be trusted, but some random thief... He had to get out of sight. ASAP.

_Why does nothing ever go as planned?_

The edge of a chair was an awful place to be stuck. He was out in the open, no hiding spots on the mostly bare table. Vulnerable. He glanced around quickly, thoughts racing. Then it hit him that he was clinging to a jacket... with pockets easily large enough for him to hide in. He winced at his last memory of being trapped in there. Not the _best_ hiding place maybe, but it would have to do in a pinch. It was a far better option than risking capture by some stranger. He slid down the jacket as fast as he could manage without falling, grasping onto the lip of the pocket and hoisting himself over into it.

Right when he was climbing into the safety of the pocket the door of the motel room opened. He heard a voice muttering something and a wave of exhaustion hit him like a brick. The last thing Sam felt was himself collapsing backwards into the pocket, and then he blacked out, the world fading around him.

A dark figure standing by the door examined the room slowly, eyes roaming over the furniture and belongings inside. It seemed like that sleep spell hadn't been needed. The hunter wasn't around. Walking into the room, it came to a stop when its gaze fell upon the old gilded book sitting on the table. A twisted smile came upon the hidden face.

It glided over to the table slowly, and opened the book up. Gnarled hands stroked the cover devotedly. It flipped reverently through the book, past the spells that Dean and Warren had been examining, to the very end of the book. Once the last page of the book was revealed, the figure took the edge of the page and carefully ripped it out. Tucking the sheet into a hidden pocket, the figure returned the book back to where it had been originally so its theft would not be noticed. Turning, it walked out the door, closing it silently to avoid alerting the human in the other room to its presence.

Less than five minutes after the dark figure left, with no traces of his existence left behind, Dean came out of the shower. There was no sign that anyone had ever even been in the room aside from him. Tossing his towel on the bed, he took the fairy tome and tucked it into his duffel. Unknowingly, he grabbed the jacket that contained his tiny brother, putting it on and never noticing the tiny bulge resting against his chest as he straightened it in the mirror. Picking up his duffel, Dean turned and headed out of the room.


	7. Reunited

Dean arrived back at the house where it had all started. Oddly enough, out of all the ingredients that he'd needed to gather, the robins’ eggs had taken him the most time. Buttercup petals were all over the place in the fields, easy to gather. He'd been able to find basil and caraway seeds in a local herb shop. On the other hand, for the robin's egg he'd had to find an Oologist, which had taken a while since he hadn't even know what an Oologist _was_ that morning, and the closest one to town had lived an hour out. He was willing to bet that having his geektastic brother with him would have made that trip take a whole lot less time. Now he had all of it packed safely away in his bag, along with the items needed to build a small altar.

He reached over the back of the seat and grabbed his duffel bag from the back. Hopefully he had something in there that would be able to stop Akar. It was like grasping at straws, not knowing exactly what it was that he was up against.

Once in the cellar, he walked carefully, boots crunching on the ground with each step. He scanned the floor carefully as he walked, footsteps thudding against the floor. He didn't want to accidentally step on any of the fairies or people if they had already arrived there before him. That would make for an awful icebreaker when the rest showed up.

Once he was sure there was no one around, he tugged a table away from the wall and set up the altar, placing all the ingredients next to it so he'd be ready when Warren showed up with his sister and Sam. He dug the book out of his duffel, along with the rough translation of the spell that Warren had done for him before leaving. Lastly, he lit a lamp, casting a soft glow over the entire basement. Now all that he needed was for Akar, or Aelfric or whatever the hell he was calling himself now to show up. And find a way to trap and bleed him. _Awesome._ Unless they got their hands on Akar, the spell would be useless and all this work pointless.

Dean was so busy planning out what they needed to get done once everyone showed up, that he didn't spot a shadow detach itself from the wall and glide up silently behind him. A warning chill jolted up his spine, but by the time he went to turn around, gun drawn and at the ready, something slammed into the side of his head. He landed heavily on his side, consciousness dwindling away. The last thing he remembered was two hands roughly grabbing his shoulders and pushing him harshly up against one of the house supports. And then only darkness.

* * *

The first thing Sam felt when he woke up was the headache. The pounding in his head was almost making its own music at this point. The next thing he realized was that past the pain, away from the percussion solo playing out in his mind, he could remember. Not much and not everything by a long shot, but he remembered Dean. His older brother. The one person in the world he would trust his life to any day. Hell, Dean had saved his damned soul. He remembered following him down the stairs into that dark basement. Seeing movement flickering out of the corner of his eye. And, at the end, seeing that bright light hit him while his memories faded away to be replaced by suspicion and fear and pain. Remorse twinged as he remembered the hurt in Dean's eyes when he'd run away.

_How could I have doubted him?_

The headache was slowly beginning to abate in intensity. He relaxed as the pain decreased. Once his head was no longer pounding like a jackhammer, he dared take a look around, cracking open his eyes carefully. _Where the hell am I?_

He found himself curled up in a small area, cloth pressing in on both sides. A small amount of light leaked in from above. It all felt vaguely familiar - like he'd been there before. His most recent memories were still clouded, hazy. Like he'd been drugged... or roofied. Groaning, he pulled himself up into a sitting position. One side of the tiny area was a solid wall, while the other side was flexible, and he could push it out for a little more space. Starting to feel claustrophobic, Sam stood up on wobbly legs and reached toward the opening above his head. He was knocked back down to the floor when the entire enclosure shook slightly. Just enough to throw off his balance. That's when he noticed the sound coming from the wall behind him.

_That sounds like.... a heartbeat..._

Like a light bulb turning on in his head, he remembered what had happened right before blacking out. Memories marched by his eyes. _Thief... pocket... jacket... I'm in Dean's jacket!  He must be wearing it now. That must be his heart behind me!_ It made him nervous to think Dean might have put the jacket on without even noticing Sam. _Am I really that small?_ The thought pained him. Anything could have happened and Sam couldn't have done anything to stop it. He rubbed his head with a groan. _What the hell did I get hit with? My memories are suddenly back on track…_ Flashbacks from the day before marched past his eyes. Running from Dean, being trapped in a pocket with some other guy, Tenanye's 'rescue'... Guilt crashed down on him like a sledgehammer at that memory.

_Dean must have been frantic when I disappeared!_

Sam pulled himself back to his feet cautiously. This time, he grasped the lip of the pocket tightly to avoid falling again. Bracing himself against the wall behind him and avoiding any thought of it being Dean’s chest, he pushed up the flap of the pocket. Luckily it wasn't buttoned today. "Dean?" He called out. No response past the steady up and down motion he realized had been going since he woke up. _Breathing._ Pulling himself up further, he peered around to see what was outside. All he could see from this vantage point was a massive fabric slope and Dean's almost endless legs outstretched and unmoving past that. He was glad that he could hear his brothers’ heartbeat, reassuring him and letting him know that his brother was still alive and well. Dean just wasn't answering.

Gathering his strength, Sam hauled himself up out of the pocket fully. He stood unsteadily on the partially sloped chest and glanced up at his brother. Dean's head was tilted limply to his left, eyes shut and blood trickling down the right side of his face from a blow to the head. Sam felt a twinge of worry for his brothers’ injury, wondering what had happened while he was out. He clambered up to Dean's shoulder quickly and stood tall (or as tall as he could manage at his whooping three inch height).

"Dean!" Sam shouted, cupping his hands over his mouth. Still no response, even when standing right next to Dean's ear. That fact rubbed at him, making him feel insignificant and useless. Gathering up his courage, Sam stalked closer to the enormous face. And kicked Dean in the nose. "Dean, wake up!" Another kick, harder this time.

The nose wrinkled in irritation, but there was no other reaction to Sam's efforts. Sighing, Sam considered his options. No response to yelling, and only a small response to kicking. He smirked when an idea popped into his head. Carefully bracing himself, Sam backed up and full on body slammed into the massive cheek, bouncing off. He caught his balance right before slipping off the shoulder. This time, he could feel Dean starting to rouse. He was thrown off balance, nearly tossed from the shoulder when Dean tried to straighten up, eyes still shut. “Dean, hold still!" Sam shouted up from where he was crouching on the shoulder. "Can you hear me?"

"How's a guy supposed to get any sleep with Tom Thumb shouting in his ear?" Dean rasped, voice hardly functioning. His eyes cracked open slowly, his gaze slowly lowering to where Sam was still crumpled on his shoulder.

Sam froze when the big green eyes fell on him. Memories back or not, it was still disconcerting to be the focus of attention for someone so much bigger than himself. Some of the tension leaked out of him when his brother smiled, relief evident all over his face, eyes softening. "Sammy... is'atchu?" Dean closed his eyes again, clearing his throat. His voice came out much stronger with his next words. "I was so worried. Didn't want you losing any stupid fights with any stupid mice without your big brother around to protect you," he smiled wryly before he turned his head away from Sam and coughed into his other shoulder.

"Dude, I think I can hold my own against a mouse." Sam scowled up at his big brother, grabbing onto Dean’s collar for balance as the shoulder shifted under him with Dean's movements. "I'm small, not helpless over here."

Dean furrowed his eyebrows at Sam. "Yeah, I'm totally getting that mouse-slayer vibe off you." He frowned suddenly in realization. "Wait... you can remember me?"

"Yeah, I got hit by another flash, and it's like my memory got a hard reset. Everything came back when I woke up." He glanced up at Dean again. "You know I'd never have run from you otherwise, right?"

Dean ignored the question as he glanced around the basement. "So, how's your mind? Got any other memories back?"

Sam knew exactly what Dean meant. "You mean the hell barrier? Still don't remember anything from the cage."

"Good, last thing we need is the Great Wall of Sam collapsing 'cause of some fairy spell gone wrong." He turned his head back to Sam as far as he could. "What about everyone else? Are they still hiding from me?" Sam could hear a bit of hurt in his brothers’ voice. Couldn't be easy to have everyone running away from you. Guilt hit Sam again at the memory of how terrified of Dean he had been yesterday.

Sam thought back for a moment. "Actually... I have no idea where they are. I kinda split up from them in the motel earlier."

Dean narrowed his eyes at this. "How did you get here without them? We're a little far from the motel room right now, and I don't think cars pick up hitch hiking borrowers."

Sam thought back to the last thing he remembered before blacking out. "I was planning on going with you, but when I got to the room and tried to climb to the table to get your attention, someone broke in. I dove in the pocket of your jacket to hide and got a facefull of spell. It knocked me out and I think it shocked my memories back."

"You were in my pocket this whole time?" Dean's face turned pale. "All this time, and I had no idea? Anything could have happened to you!" He whispered harshly, big eyes glaring down at Sam's tiny form.

Sam took a hesitant step back from Dean, unable to suppress a sliver of intimidation. Sam knew that Dean wasn't actually mad at him, he was angry at the fact that he could have hurt Sam without even knowing. Still, Sam's instincts begged him to get as far away from Dean as he could. He held onto the thought that no matter how angry his brother got, Dean would never hurt him or let him get hurt. He was far safer here with his brother than without. Despite all that, because of their size difference he was still unable to totally suppress the apprehension he felt at his brothers’ glare.

"It’s not like I meant to hitch a ride with you, Dean! It was the best hiding place I could come up with on short notice, and I definitely wasn't expecting to get slammed by whatever spell that was." Sam forced himself to meet Dean's eyes unwaveringly. _C'mon Sam! Grow a pair! This is DEAN you're talking too. There's no one in the world you can trust more!_ The big greens glaring down at him softened slightly at his words. "Whoever hit me with this wanted something from us or they wouldn't have gone through so much trouble to cover their tracks... did you notice anything missing from our room?"

Dean stared down at the ground thoughtfully. "No, there wasn't any sign anyone was ever in the room. You or them."

Sam pulled himself away and glanced uneasily around the shadows lurking in the massive basement. He'd feel a lot with Dean on his feet. "Can you stand up? Whatever knocked you out might be coming back."

Dean tried to pull himself up from the wooden support but slipped back down when his arms didn't come with him. Sam yelped as the shoulder he was standing on bucked, causing him to slip off and topple down Dean's chest. Rolling down the steep slope, he caught hold of a plate sized button on the jacket, finally halting his fall when he reached Dean’s stomach. Dean peered down at his little brother, concern showing on his face. "Dude, you okay?"

"Yea, I'm awesome," Sam called up, lying on his back for a moment to catch his breath. At least the landing had been soft. After he recovered, he carefully hauled himself back up the massive chest, almost sent tumbling again every time Dean took a breath. It was incredibly unnerving to be so affected by such a small movement. He couldn’t wait to get back to being taller than his big brother. Finally, he scrambled back up to the shoulder and collapsed against Dean’s thick neck for support. For some reason he found himself feeling safer on the shoulder. "Let’s... not try that again."

Dean gave a sympathetic grunt. "I can't get my hands free." He twisted his arms again, more careful this time around to avoid jostling the shoulder his extra little brother was on. "My knifes gone too. Bastard must have stolen it when he tied me up."

Sam sighed. "Today just keeps getting better and better." Glancing around the room, a thought occurred to him. He tried to peer over the back of Dean's shoulder to where his hands were tied up, but the view was blocked by the house support. "Did he tie you up with rope? Or the chains?"

"Rope." Dean turned his head to peek over at Sam, but with Sam still leaning against his neck, he only succeeded in almost knocking his brother off again. "Sorry, man," he said sheepishly. "Why's it matter what I'm tied up with, anyway?"

Sam stood up shakily from his perch. He kept a hand against Dean's neck for balance for a moment as he stood, uncertain if Dean was going to move again, and walked back out to where his brother could see him. He pulled his silver knife out of his jacket, grinning up at Dean. "You're not the only one with a knife."

Dean frowned skeptically at that, still squirming to get free from the rope. "Dude, the ropes practically as big as you are. You plan on cutting through it with that mini pig sticker?"

Sam glared up at his brothers’ doubt. "You have a better plan?" Getting no response, he nodded to himself. "Well, me and my pig sticker better get started then."

Under Dean's watchful eye, Sam turned and carefully crawled down from the shoulder.  Dean stopped struggling to get free of the rope as soon as Sam started, concern for Sam apparent in his eyes. Climbing down the jacket was a lot easier than climbing up it had been. Dean's massive chest was slanted, giving him more stability than he'd had when he’d climbed straight up in the motel room. The only thing that kept screwing with his balance was the steady up and down motion of Dean's breathing. _This can't get any weirder..._ He finally reached Dean's pants and climbed down using the pocket for footholds, marveling that he was small enough to actually fit inside of it.

Glad to finally be standing on ground that didn't shift under his feet, he cast a look over his shoulder up at his giant brother and practically stumbled. From this point of view, he could barely even see Dean's face. He felt a brief moment of insecurity, worried he was too small to help his brother out. _No way, I can’t let Dean down, not after everything he’s done for me…_

With effort, Sam pulled his attention back to the job at hand. He hastened into a jog, quickly traveling around his giant brother and the wooden support until he reached Dean's hands. He couldn’t stop from staring at them. They were massive, fingers easily as long as Sam was tall, if not longer, palm wide enough for him to take a nap in. He shuddered at the memory of being trapped in those massive hands, even though he knew now that Dean would never have done anything to hurt him. The only reason Sam had been grabbed in the first place was because he'd been trying to run away. Dean had been trying to protect him, as best he could. Sam pushed away the memory, feeling guilty all over again. He focused on his goal. The rope wrapped around both his brothers’ hands _was_ thick, easily twice as thick around as Sam's waist. _Better get started. Neither of us is getting anywhere while Dean’s tied down._ He walked closer to the huge hands and sized everything up, trying to decide where the best place to start would be.

Far above him, Dean tried to twist his head around to see where Sam was. "How's it looking down there, Sammy?"

Sam gave a small start of surprise at the question, having been deep in thought. "Great, everything's awesome." He walked closer to his brother’s hands, resting his tiny hand against Dean's massive one to reassure his brother and tried not to stare at the sheer difference in size. He gathered his courage. "Just... try not to move too much. The rope's too high to reach by myself, I'm gonna have to stand on your hands to reach it."

"No problem."

Steeling himself against the bad memories of being grabbed the day before, he stepped up and hauled himself onto the fingers. Once Dean realized where he was climbing, Sam felt the huge fingers move beneath him, cautiously offering support. He smiled at that, knowing how much Dean would hate being stuck while his brother did all the work. There was nothing Dean hated more than any feeling of being useless or helpless, especially when it came to helping out Sam. Once up on the hand, he stood with each foot on a separate finger and grabbed onto the rope. He was startled to see how raw the skin was where the rope was wrapped around Dean's wrist. Dean certainly hadn’t held back trying to get free so Sam wouldn’t have to put himself at risk. He started to saw away with his silver knife, filled with determination to help his brother out after everything Dean had gone through the last two days for Sam. And everything he'd put Dean through the last two days too.

Once he started to work on the rope, he realized what a huge task this was. The strands were thick, and took a good amount of effort to cut through with the tiny knife, making a long job even longer. At least he'd sharpened the blade before they started the hunt. He needed every smidge of help he could get in this situation.

After sawing away for about five minutes, Sam jumped when he heard a door opening upstairs. The fingers he was standing on jerked in surprise too, easily knocking him off balance with the motion. Luckily, he collapsed backwards into Dean's palm, his landing cushioned by the soft skin. The huge fingers wrapped gently around him. "Sammy, you alright?" Dean called over his shoulder.

"Yeah I'm good. What was that?" Starting to feel claustrophobic in his brothers gentle but overpowering grasp, Sam pushed against the massive fingers closed around him until they opened up slightly. Grabbing onto the closest finger, he used it to pull himself back to a standing position on the hand, balancing on the thick skin uncertainly between huge fingers.

"I'm betting it's whatever attacked me. You got anywhere to hide?"

Sam glanced around, trying to find somewhere to hide. From his perch on Dean's hand, the table was too far away. He'd have to run the length of a football field to even be able to get under it, and he'd still be exposed. The boxes pushed against the walls were even farther away in the opposite direction. _Shit, shit, shit…_ Nothing else in the room offered a good hiding spot... A door slammed shut upstairs and he heard the footsteps start down the basement stairwell...

"Sam?" He heard his brother whisper frantically above him. The fear he heard in Dean's voice caught Sam off guard.

A thought occurred to him at the last second. Sam raced across the palm and over Dean's wrist, having no problem keeping his balance running across a wrist broader than a sidewalk. Pulling up Dean's sleeve, Sam crawled up his brothers’ arm. Once inside, he was cloaked in complete darkness. He could feel his brother's thick arm twitch under him in surprise when he climbed up. He pulled himself halfway up Dean's forearm and froze, listening. He could hear the massive footsteps walking over to his brother. He heard the feet come to a halt not far away. _Don't move a muscle,_ Sam thought to himself, dread filling him.

* * *

Feeling his own brother climb onto his hand was one of the weirdest sensations Dean had ever felt. And that was after a lifetime of weird and strange shit on an almost daily basis. He tried to help as best he could, gently using his finger to boost his brother's lightweight form up onto the rest of his hand. This whole situation was seriously fucked up. He didn’t want to have to worry about tiny Sam slipping off his hands and getting hurt trying to free Dean. If anything happened to Sam while trying to free him, he'd never forgive himself. Tiny boots walked onto two of Dean's fingers, the novelty of the sensation briefly yanking Dean out of his thoughts. He could feel Sam start tearing at the rope with his bitty knife. Dean closed his eyes. _Please let this work…_ he prayed to the air.

Holding still while feeling his brothers’ miniscule weight on his hand was one of the hardest things he'd ever done. Every time Sam shifted his position, it took all Dean's self-control to not shiver at the feeling. The lightweight boots tickled his skin, like someone brushing feathers against him every time Sam shifted his weight. _Can't let Sammy down,_ he thought to himself, focusing on that. No matter how weird this all was, no matter how much his hands wanted to twitch, he couldn't let his baby brother down. Especially since if he twitched here, he could toss his brother to the floor without even trying. He felt dread clench his stomach, remembering how he’d been stuck, unable to do anything but watch as Sam had tumbled off his shoulder. So useless! Seeing Sam fall had hurt more than falling himself ever would. All he wanted to do was reach up and save Sam, and he couldn’t even do that. He'd been forced to watch his brother fend for himself with Dean being the source of the danger. And it hurt so damn bad. Some big brother he was. All he’d done these last two days was let Sammy down.

Everything was going smooth for about five minutes. After five minutes in of sitting and keeping still for Sam he heard a door slam shut overhead. He jerked his head in the direction the sound came from. His brother's small weight hit his palm and Dean realized with a pang he must have flinched, knocking Sam off balance. Worried, he curled his fingers protectively around Sam's tiny form, checking to make sure he hadn't accidentally hurt his little brother. One of his fingers curled around a tiny boot. It still shocked him just how small his brother was. "Sammy, you alright?" He called over his shoulder, cloaking the fear from his voice. He had to keep his game face on, keep confident for Sam.

"Yeah, I'm good. What was that?" He heard his brothers’ small voice call out. Dean found himself bothered that he almost couldn't hear his own brothers’ voice, it was so soft and sounded so far away. He could feel tiny hands pushing against his fingers. Realizing he still had his hand wrapped around his brother, he carefully opened up his fist, releasing Sam. It disturbed him how easy it was to trap his brother now, even with the best intentions. Sam was completely helpless if anyone got their hands on him. He felt Sam pull himself back up to a standing position again, microscopic fingers grabbing onto Dean's middle finger for stability.

Dean frowned thoughtfully to himself. "Must be whatever attacked me. You got anywhere to hide?" It had to be his attacker, no one else had any reason to come to this house after the disappearances. People in town had been too freaked out after the last. The only visitors to the house since all this had happened other than he and Sam had been the police right after the third victim vanished.

His train of thought was derailed when he heard the footsteps above thud in the direction of the basement stairs. _C'mon Sam..._ When the steps reached the entrance to the stairwell, he realized his brothers tiny weight hadn't moved since standing up in his palm. "Sam?" Dean whispered nervously. Last thing they needed was for any bad guys to get ahold of Sam while he was travel sized. Sam was far too vulnerable to risk like this. And with Dean incapacitated, Sam would be helpless if he was caught.

The tiny weight finally moved from his hand. Dean froze when he felt his brother actually _climb_ up his sleeve. He couldn't help flexing his hand and shivering at the sensation of little hands and boots crawling up his arm and stopping halfway up.

_Not the worst hiding spot, but definitely the weirdest..._

Dean's attention was diverted from his brother when the dark figure reached the bottom of the stairs and walked over to Dean, coming into the lamplight.

"Well, if it isn't my old friend Aelfric." Dean sneered when the dark figures face came into view. "Or do you prefer... Akar?"

Akar paused briefly, steel grey eyes locking onto Dean's. "I have to give it to you, boy. You aren't as slow as I thought you'd be." He smiled as he bent down until he was face to face with Dean. "You hunters are always so predictable, showing up whenever a few unimportant little nobody’s disappear. Nevertheless, I have to admit my spell failing against you did catch me off guard." He shook his finger at Dean, nearly coming in contact with Dean's face. "Now, that's _never_ happened before."

Dean couldn't stop a snarl from crossing his face when Akar put his finger so close to him. "Guess I'm just that awesome," he growled out, angry at the personal space invasion.

Akar stood back up and strode over to where Dean had set up his altar. He pulled a leather pack off of his arm and slowly withdrew items. He placed them carefully in a circle around the altar. When his bag was emptied, he reached into his shirt and pulled out a folded parchment covered in delicate gold script that Dean recognized as a sheet of paper from the old tome of fairy magic. "Son of a bitch, that was you that snuck into my room?"

Akar looked over at him, surprise briefly flashing over his face. "And how did you find out about that? I thought I covered my tracks nicely.”

Dean drew back from Akar. He'd forgotten that Sam had told him about that. He felt Sam start to slip down his arm at his movements and froze, angling his arm carefully so Sam wouldn't fall. Once he stopped moving, he felt Sam climb back up his arm away from the opening of the sleeve. He pulled his attention away from the distraction of tiny hands and feet reluctantly, not wanting Akar to get suspicious. He hated the fact he couldn't do more for Sam.  "You really think you can break into a hunter's room without them knowing about it?" He bluffed.

Akar stared into Dean's eyes steadily. "You hunters think so highly of yourselves. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy breaking your spirit before I take your life force." His lips curled up into a sneer. "But first, I think I'll make you watch while I steal your brothers. Dear little Sammy, fairy sized with no magic. Once I track him and the others down, he'll be a sitting duck. Mine to do with as I please. And you won't be able to do anything but watch me take his life."

"You son of a bitch," Dean spat, trying hard not to struggle for his brothers’ sake. It was so hard. "You lay one hand on him and I will hunt you down and make you regret every second. Whatever it takes." He found himself replaying Akar's last statement in his head. "How did you find out my brothers' name?"

"Oh, you think you Winchester's are the only ones who can do their research? You don't survive as long as I do without learning to be prepared. I've watched others die - often at hunters’ hands - for less." A tight smile graced Akar's face as he glanced over at Dean. "I know how to do my homework, boy. And you boys are quite famous in the supernatural world. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone dying as many times as you boys," he sneered at Dean, leaning in even closer. "I'll be sure to make it permanent this time. No… backsies, as they say." This last was said with a slow hiss.

He turned away from Dean and faced the altar. "But now, I have a small matter to attend too."

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"Oh, just finishing a spell that got interrupted so many years ago. When I'm done, all these little fairies will be drained of all their magic and life force, instead of just losing their magic slowly, and I will become stronger than ever. I will finally have enough power to be able to cross over into the fairy realms and harness the boundless magics that exist within."

His face lit up. "Fairy magic tastes so much better than any witchcraft I've ever had the pleasure to do. So much more... satisfying." He licked his lips, checking over all of the items sitting on the table. "Now, all I need is one last ingredient to get this lovely show on the road. After all, with you here I've got a great supply of hunters’ blood. Now, I'll be back with delicious, _fresh_ tears of a virgin shortly. And then we will get this show on the road."

Finding himself unsurprised, Dean muttered. "Why do virgins always get screwed over in these spells?"

Akar walked back over to Dean. "There are few things in this life more enjoyable than virgins. So... tasty. Don't go anywhere, boy. You wouldn’t want to miss this show." He walked around behind Dean. Dean could feel him checking on the bindings. He closed his eyes with a brief prayer. _Don't move a muscle, Sammy._ He felt his little brother tense up, his tiny weight shifting against Dean's arm when Akar's hands strayed over where he was hiding. Luckily for them both, Akar didn't notice either Sam or the progress he'd made so far on the ropes binding Dean.

Akar stood up, and with one last glance at Dean, walked out of the basement. Dean waited until he heard the front door slam shut upstairs before he let himself relax. He felt the tiny weight slip down his arm, climbing out from the protection of the sleeve. Miniature boots walked across his hand. "That... was close," he heard Sam's tiny voice proclaim.

"You're telling me." Dean muttered. He flexed the hand that Sam wasn't standing on to get rid of some of the willies that being so close to Akar had given him. "We've _got_ to find a way to torch this sonovabitch once and for all."

* * *

Trapped up Dean's sleeve in the dark, Sam couldn't do anything but listen to the conversation happening above him. He fretted silently. If he was discovered here, he'd be in a bad spot. There was no way for him to defend himself against a giant. All of his training and weapons were for similar sized opponents. His handgun would only do so much, and his knife was smaller than a needle. Paper cuts wouldn't stop Akar. He focused solely on being silent... keeping his breathing quiet and even... and not moving so much as an inch.

The muscles he was standing on occasionally twitched, and he could feel the throb of a pulse beneath him as well. At one point, Dean shifted enough to knock Sam from his hold on the arm and he found himself slipping down the arm toward the exit again. Luckily, his brother froze before Sam slipped out, the massive arm angling up to give him a better grip and Sam managed to climb back up without disturbing the sleeve of the jacket.

At one point when Dean was arguing with Akar, he felt the massive muscles he was sitting on tense. Sam shivered at the surreal sensation. It was difficult to not feel utterly insignificant in this situation. He was hiding on top of muscles larger than his entire body. How much more pathetic could he get... hiding up his brother's sleeve… heart racing at even the slightest movement from Dean, nevermind Akar...

After a while waiting in limbo like this, listening to the conversation taking place far above him, a huge shadow fell across the sleeve Sam was hiding under. His heart skipped a beat when he saw massive shadows moving directly above his hiding spot. He flattened himself against the arm as much as he could. They merely passed over him though, not brushing over the sleeve where he was. Most likely checking the bindings around Dean's wrist. _So, so close..._ His pulse raced at the close encounter.

He heard boots clomp their way out of the basement again, but waited patiently until the door upstairs had slammed shut before sliding down the arm to escape from the enclosed, humid sleeve. He took a deep breath of fresh air once outside again. The open air felt blessedly cool after being stuck up a humid sleeve. "That... was close," he breathed, relaxing slightly.

"You're telling me," Dean's deep voice came from overhead. The hand Sam wasn't standing on opened and closed a few times, flexing. A shiver went up his spine as the sheer scale of such a simple motion reminded Sam again exactly how miniscule he was in comparison.

Sam sighed. _Stop thinking about it. Get back to work before this crazy man-witch... fairy... thing... comes back..._ he told himself firmly.

Despite his best efforts, the rest of the rope took at least another half hour to cut through. He lost his balance twice during that time, once when he forgot he was standing on a hand and accidentally stepped off into the open air while shifting position. He fell between Dean’s index finger and middle finger, managing to catch hold of the index finger midair. Right before he slipped off completely Dean brought his other finger underneath Sam, gently hoisting his tiny brother safely up to the hand. The other time was when Dean unintentionally squirmed under Sam's boots. "Can't take you anywhere." Dean tossed over his shoulder when Sam toppled over for the second time, this time landing safely in the palm. Sam just rolled his eyes and dragged himself back up to the rope, not dignifying that with an answer. He was so close to cutting through...

He gave a sigh of relief when his knife snapped through the last strand of rope, causing the coils to loosen around Dean's arms. Once the rope released from the hands, Sam could feel them start to move under him. "Dean?!" He called out, teetering on the hand, balance gone. "Hold on, lemme get down first!"

His brother gave no response to his plea, other than the hand didn't stop moving. Sam was knocked off balance by the movement, and tumbled backwards into the palm for a third time. The huge fingers curled gently around him again, easily trapping him while he was raised unwillingly up into the air, still struggling to get free. He fought against a wave of helplessness, unable to free himself. The hand didn't come to a halt until Sam found himself being held at Dean's eye level, looking into concerned eyes that were bigger than his head. He couldn't help but tremble slightly at the sight. This new size was a lot to get used too, no matter how much he trusted Dean. Being so much smaller made him so much more vulnerable. Once the fingers opened up around him again, Sam pulled himself unsteadily to his feet in the center of the palm, bracing himself with Dean’s thumb. "Let’s... not do that again," he said, looking up at Dean.

Dean furrowed his eyebrows. "Sorry," he said, sounding regretful. Pursing his lips, he turned his hand, carefully inspecting his diminutive brother. Sam fidgeted nervously under the close examination, but he recognized the Make Sure Sammy's OK look on Dean's face. It was still incredibly unsettling, but Sam knew he was in good hands. In the most literal way.

After he finished checking over Sam, Dean pulled himself to a standing position, with Sam holding on to the giant thumb next to him for dear life when the air rushed by him swiftly, his stomach still several stories below. He was just along for the ride today.

Once standing, Dean once again held him up so they could see as close to eye to eye as was possible in the whole weird situation. "You got any ideas about how to handle Akar, or Aelfric or whatever the hell he calls himself?"

Sam crossed his arms and looked down thoughtfully. He carefully reflected on the events of the last day and a half. Being shrunk, trapped with Warren, talking with Tenanye... A thought occurred to him from one of his conversations with her. A small detail he hadn't thought much of until finding out how Dean had been bound with rope, and remembering what he had seen in the basement what felt like a lifetime ago. An idea forming in his head, he glance around the lamp lit room quickly. His eyes fell upon the item that they needed. _Perfect._ He smirked up at Dean with a newfound confidence.

"I've got a plan."


	8. Reversal of Fate

Deep in thought as he returned to the abandoned house, Akar twirled the small vial of tears around his fingers. At last, he had the chance to finish what he had started all those years ago, before the tome had vanished and he'd had to settle for a slow drain of magic from the fairies instead of the instant power he had expected. So many years wasted, spent pushing the fairies away from anything and anyone that would have been able to help them free themselves. A twisted smile came over his face as he remembered the... pleasure... he had taken in certain parts. The rest of it had been a long wait for his power to grow and theirs to weaken. And now that he had the ability to acquire their life force along with their magic, he would be even more powerful than he had thought.

So many years he had listened to stories of the fairy realms. He could almost taste the power that resided within. He felt a spring in his step now, with all that boundless power within reach. Every day he'd lived among them he had listened to the stories, dreaming of the future where he would be able to finally touch and _control_ all that magic.

He stepped back up to the house where he'd left that intrusive hunter tied up in the basement. Considering his options, he held on to the doorknob before entering. Perhaps he'd end the hunters life quick and easy, because if he hadn't shown up with the other hunter, Akar would still be stuck, waiting for a time that might never come. Waiting to get enough magic to be able to open the portal. He smirked. He'd give the hunter a proper thank you, complete with a slit throat instead of a cake. All he needed was the blood of the hunter for the ritual and then he would have no use for the man.

He pushed open the door and walked down the hallway, following his earlier footsteps to the basement. The wood flooring creaked under his boots, echoing throughout the open air in the empty house, sounding loud in the silence that cloaked the place. Dust scattered with every step, swirling up to shine in the afternoon sun. After he stepped onto the top of the basement stairs, he sealed the door behind him with magic so that no one would be able to enter or leave without his permission.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he peered around the room carefully, making sure that all was still as he had left it. You didn't reach over 900 years old without learning to be cautious. He still found himself amazed that the two hunters had managed to surprise him after so many years. He'd have to be careful with this Dean until he'd finally slit the humans throat. He couldn't afford to underestimate a hunter, not now when he was so close to his goal.

He saw the human still slumped against the support of the house. He hadn't budged so much as an inch since the last time Akar had been down here. A sneer on his face, Akar kicked the leg closest to him when he walked over to the table to place the fresh tears down next to the bowl and the other ingredients. Pulling an ancient ritual knife from his shirt, he turned to Dean. Awakened, the hunter was glaring death at Akar.

Akar smiled as he knelt down next to the restrained hunter. "You know, I wish I had more time with you. We could have so much fun together, Dean." He lifted the blade up by Dean's unprotected throat. "It's been so long since I got to truly enjoy killing someone." He pulled back his arm slightly, and went to slice...

_CRASH!_

Akar leaped up in surprise, blade falling from his hand before cutting into the human. Whipping around, he saw a tiny form on the table next to the ingredients, and on the floor... "No!" He hissed. The vial of tears had shattered, the precious contents seeping into the floorboards. Angrily, he grabbed at the tiny Sam that was standing on the table, long fingers aching to crush the life out of the hunter. The tiny hunter jumped back with a cry of surprise, slicing out in front of him with the equally tiny knife he was wielding in his hands. Its contact with Akar's fingers caused a hissing smoke and blinding pain. He snatched his hand back swiftly, glaring at the tiny human. "You will be made to suffer _long_ for that," he hissed.

From behind, he heard a much deeper voice. "Yeah, that's just not going to happen here, you Unseelie bastard." As he went to turn around, a long chain was wrapped around his neck and he was yanked against the pole that moments ago the human had been bound too. The chain burned him, causing such agony that he couldn't focus enough to cast any type of spell, either his witchcraft or stolen fairy magic.

He found himself looking at Dean, who was holding the rest of the chain in one hand and the other hand securing the chain wrapped around his neck. Against all the pain, and the pressure on his neck, he rasped out, "But...how?"

* * *

Sam watched the man-witch come back into the basement from the shadow of the bowl he was hiding next too. For his plan to work, a few things needed to fall into place. The plan might fail if any of his instincts about the situation were wrong. But the way Ten had said her torturer had worked... the gloves that had stayed on when handling iron... the way her torturer had avoided showing his face to her, as though fearing recognition, he had a feeling that magic wasn't the only thing Akar had absorbed from the fairies when he had cast his sapping spell.

He spared a glance over at Dean. Feigning sleep, his giant brother was slumped against the support, rope wrapped loosely around his arms again and the chain left close enough to grab. Once Akar was in position, Dean would be able to jump him from behind. All Sam had to do was pull the witches’ attention to himself long enough for Dean to gain the element of surprise. They couldn't afford to have him casting any other spells before he was trapped. With their luck, they'd both end up three inches tall and completely at his mercy.

Sam stiffened when the witch came over to the table, but relaxed somewhat when all that happened was a vial was placed down near Sam's hiding spot. Akar turned toward Dean, walking away from the table - and Sam. After making sure that the witch wasn't going to turn back to him, Sam crept over to the vial. _Must be the virgin tears._ He felt anger grip his heart, thinking about what some poor girl had gone through for Akar to procure them. He peered back over at Akar and Dean and felt worry fill him. Akar had a blade against his brother's throat, but was still in the middle of talking to his brother. Bad guys always had to gloat.

_Gotta move fast._

Sam pushed with all his might against the vial, and got it to roll toward the edge of the table. _Just a little more..._

Right when the witch creature was about to cut open Dean's throat and ruin their ambush by making Dean move before they had the jump on Akar, Sam succeeded in pushing the vial off the table. _CRASH_ went the vial on the floor, causing Akar to whip around toward the table. Sam backed away from the edge, fear filling him when the witches’ eyes fell on him. _Shit, shit, shit!_ A massive hand reached out toward him, intentions clear in the twisted anger on the witches face. Sam could see the shadow of his brother's massive bulk standing up silently behind Akar, but Sam knew he wouldn't be in time to save Sam from being grabbed. While Dean grabbed the iron chain they'd found, Sam slipped his hand into his coat for any weapon he could pull out in time. His hand fell on the silver dagger he still had.

_Perfect!_

He sliced out with the dagger right when the fingers were about to close around him. He managed to cut open the one nearest him, causing it to hiss and burn. Akar snatched the hand back, grunting in pain. "You will be made to suffer _long_ for that," the witch growled at him, holding the hand tenderly.

"Yeah, that's just not going to happen here, you Unseelie bastard." Sam heard Dean's voice. He saw his brother whip the chain around the witches’ throat, slamming him back against the pole with a thud that seemed closer to an earthquake at Sam's size. Sam was knocked to his knees. Regaining his balance quickly, he backed farther away from the edge of the table, wanting to be as far from the fighting giants as possible, just in case.

"How?" Sam heard the witch rasp out to Dean.

Steam rose from the chain, burning Akar's throat. Dean wrapped the rest of the chain around his body, securing the witch to the pole as tightly as he could. Once the witch was completely anchored in place, Dean walked around to face him with a smirk. "You know, you're getting sloppy in your old age. I guess you should have covered your tracks a little better."

Dean came over to the table Sam was on. His massive hand came to rest right next to his little brother. Swallowing to hide his ever-present nervousness at his brothers size - or rather Sam's _lack_ of size, Sam stepped into the palm and found himself being lifted up to Dean's shoulder. From that perch, he had a much better view of everything going on in the room. He could even see two tiny figures near where he and Dean had first been attacked the day before and smiled, glad that they had made it. He was so distracted by this, he was caught off guard when his brother took a step, almost knocking him off of his perch. He grasped tightly to the collar while Dean walked up to Akar.

Akar was scowling at them both now. "What do you mean 'cover my tracks better?' I have never let my guard down once!"

Dean laughed, the deep sound echoing around Sam. "Yeah, well if you were as good as you thought, maybe Sam wouldn't have figured out how to trap you."

Suspiciously, Akar said, "What do you mean?" His gaze slid over to Sam, eyes narrowing.

Sam gulped nervously at the look. He was exceedingly glad Akar hadn't gotten ahold of him. He had no doubt he would have died quickly if the creature had gotten his hands around him. He cleared his throat and straightened up fully, pulling all attention to him. "It was the fact that you tied Dean up with rope. You had all that chain lying so close at hand, but you still went with the rope. Even though route is far easier to escape from." Sam crossed his arms and laughed. "There was no reason for you to not use that chain, unless there was something, some reason stopping you." He paced back and forth, ignoring the feeling of Dean stiffening uncomfortably beneath his feet. "And then there was Tenanye's story of how she was tortured."

"Who?" Akar said, feigning surprise. "I know of no one by that name!"

"Yeah, nice try." Sam challenged. "We already know you know her. You might not have ever met face to face as fairies, but you sure did kidnap her and torture her when you were a human." At this, Akar's scowl deepened, lines etching valleys on his face. "I wouldn't have put it together until I saw how you bound Dean. You took such care to stay away from those _iron_ chains. Even though they would have been a far better restraint than some bits of rope. And I remembered what Ten said about her torture, how iron was slowly slid up and down her back, so many times that she still has the scars to this day. And how her kidnapper never took off his gloves while he did it, though she thought he was too disgusted to touch her. She never thought that the iron would have hurt him." He paused in his pacing and looked over at Akar again. "The only thing we couldn't figure out was why."

Akar's scowl slipped back to a confident sneer. "Why, that should be the most obvious part. I needed to separate her from her people, give my spell time to work. Without her, there would be no escape for any of them. She was the only fairy that would have been able to hold them all together, to even maybe find a way home. Once she was out of the picture, I became Aelfric, using the lovely fairy magic I was lucky enough to have drained by then and took over in her place. And as an added bonus with the torture, the fairies stopped trusting their dear human friends. Since they were too afraid to ask for help, they never regained their precious tome and never knew how to go home." He laughed. "And they never suspected me once. I thought at least one of them would have figured out I came after the gate closed. Fools." He struggled against his bindings. "I _will_ get out and make you pay for this, you insignificant little ankle biters!"

Sam found himself struggling to hold in his anger. Causing so much pain for your own gain... making an entire people suffer for your own power... torturing an innocent, helpless girl for selfish desire... This bastard deserved everything he was going to get when they reversed every last spell he'd ever cast.

Dean snarled at the witch. "Well, you're not going to be hurting anyone ever again." He took some of the iron chain and wrapped it around Akar's mouth. Steam hissed at the touch. Dean stepped back and smirked. "Much better."

* * *

From the darkness of the tunnels entrance to the basement, Tenanye and Warren stood watching Dean grapple Akar into captivity. Ten watched the brief fight with a huge amount of trepidation, clutching tightly to her staff. Her fear of humans threatened to overwhelm her. Being near Dean when he had been sleeping had been nerve wracking, but seeing him awake and easily tossing around another human his size was another matter.

Her eyes flicked over to her brother briefly. She was still shocked that he was willingly working with a human after what they had both gone through. She was having a lot more trouble bringing herself to trust them. Even Sam after she'd found out what he was... she felt so torn between trusting him completely and running as far from him as she could. She _wanted_ to trust him so much, wanted him to be just like her and to have nothing to fear from him. But that wouldn't ever be possible, especially since this plan would return him to his true form.

The conversation between the humans now included a far softer voice. She had to strain to hear what Sam was saying, and it took her a moment to find where he was. She spotted him at last, standing on Dean's shoulder, overshadowed by his massive brother. She waved at him when he glanced in her direction, glad to see he was ok. Then she tuned her attention into the conversation taking place above them.

It was awful hearing Sam talk about her captivity. It brought up memories she had taken such care to suppress. Pain, fear, insignificance... she had felt like nothing. Less than nothing. She put on her game face, acted like nothing had changed, but there had been a hole in her that she couldn't fill. She had left everything behind to try to escape it. Now, she realized that without her brother, she had only made the hole worse. She needed her family nearby. Spending all those years away had done nothing to truly help her.

Hearing Akar's voice jump in after Sam, she tensed. She heard him speak about the reason she'd been captured. It cleared up so much for her. Separating her from her people... in essence weakening all fairies by causing their only possible leader to abandon them. She felt her will crack at the revelation.

Holding back a sob, she turned to her brother. "Is this all... my fault?"

Warren wrapped his arms around her protectively, stroking her hair slowly. "No, how could you have known? It's not your fault. It never was. This bastard had all this planned out the second he knew we existed. None of us even knew who he was. The human's did too good a job keeping him away from us, so we never even had warning."

Tenanye sucked in a shaky breath before she pulled out of the embrace and met his gaze. "Thanks."

Together they both turned their attention back to the humans. Dean and Sam were now both looking over toward them. Ten felt her heart jump at being caught in the human's gaze. She couldn't stop herself from shrinking back as Dean walked over, thudding steps causing the dust around them to swirl upwards.

Warren looked over at her, a reassuring look on his face. "Ten, it's alright! He just wants to help."

"N-no." Her voice cracked as the human knelt close to them, meeting her gaze. She kept backing away. "It's too much. I can't face a human again. It's too much!" She whispered. It was overwhelming to have him looking at her while awake. She wanted nothing more than to run away and never come back. Find a place to hide. Somewhere she would never be found ever again.

Dean looked down at Warren once he had knelt on the floor, "Good to see you again, pint size." His voice was so loud this close, Ten had to bite back a cry of alarm.

Warren peered up at Dean. "Wouldn't have missed it." He glanced over toward Ten. "Ahhh, Ten's got a bad history with humans, so you'll have to forgive her."

Dean gave her a half smile, "Yeah, I heard something about that. I'm real sorry she had to go through that. But," he tried to meet her eyes, "you don't have anything to worry about with me and Sammy here, I promise."

She jumped back even farther when he spoke, and stumbled when Dean raised his hand up, but he was only moving it to his shoulder, and Sam. He scooped up the much smaller human in a fist and lowered him down next to Warren. Sam jumped down from the hand next to her brother and turned to Dean, waving him off. Dean backed away carefully, settling a few feet from them. She felt her breath hitch in surprise when the human did as his tiny brother signaled.

Sam walked quickly toward Ten. "You don't have to be afraid... Dean's not going to hurt you. Neither of us are," he said quietly, raising his hands to try to calm her down. "We just want to help you and your brother."

She froze against the wall of the basement, right next to the entrance of the hole in the wall. "You remembered," she said lamely, realizing he wasn't afraid of his brother at all anymore.

"Yeah, got hit by another blast from Akar. Persistent bastard. Knocked me out but gave my memory a good jump start. I remember everything." Sam reached out for her, pausing when she flinched away. When she didn't run from him, he reached out again, gently grasping her arm. "Ten, we need you for this. No one else can do this spell. And you'll never have anything to fear from either me or my brother. We just want to get everything back to the way it's meant to be."

She tore away from his gaze. "I'm sorry. It's just..." She looked back over at Dean. "Humans make me feel so helpless."

Surprised, Sam's arm fell away. "You _know_ you're not helpless though! How many of your people are willing to put themselves in harm’s way to save someone they never met?" He stepped back and spread his arms. "But you did when you came to get me. You are one of the bravest people I know. You can do this."

She refused to meet his glance. "You've only known me for a day. How can you say that?"

A ghost of a smile passed over Sam's face. "Because of how you saved me." He said softly, putting his hands on her shoulders. "You put yourself in danger without worrying about yourself. And all for a stranger."

Still refusing to look at him, she said, "I just did what anyone would do."

"Yeah, you might be surprised how many people aren't willing to get caught by a giant and stuck in a jar for a stranger." Sam had to hold back a snigger at the offended look on his brother's face. "Hey, don't look at me that way." He called up to Dean. "You're the one who's playing Godzilla right now. And you _did_ put her brother in a jar." Dean crossed his arms and glowered down at his miniscule brother. Ten gulped at the intimidating look on his face. Yet here Sam was, same size as her and completely unafraid of angering the human. She couldn't imagine ever provoking someone that size the way he was.

Hesitantly, she raised her eyes and focused on Sam's eyes. She could feel her fears beginning to melt away at the care she saw in them. Relaxing slightly, she stepped into Sam's arms, once again wishing that he was a Fae like her. That way, she'd never have to say goodbye. He pulled away from her slightly and she found herself looking up into his gentle eyes.

"Where's everyone else?" Sam said hesitantly. "They came... right?"

"Yeah. They're hiding still. They won't come out until the portal opens." She smiled slightly at the thought. "They don't really... trust... a human. At all. The human's that were transformed are upstairs, with a few of my people watching out for them until the transformation begins."

Warren moved over toward her and Sam. "Ten, are you sure you have enough magic for this?"

Her eyes blinked slowly, long lashes obscuring them from view. "I have enough. Once the spell starts..." she glanced up, first at Sam, then at her brother. "Once it starts, the magic won't come from me. I'll be using Akar as a focus much like my staff. There will be plenty of magic then. All I have to do is get the ball rolling." She hugged her arms to her body. "It'll work. I know it will."

Sam raised his hand up to her face and brushed some stray locks out of her eyes. "Sounds like everything's ready then. You ready to be the hero today?"

"Uuuh," her eyes slid past Sam to his towering brother. _He's_ _not gonna hurt you, not a threat_. "Y-yea, I think I am. I can do this." She fixed that last thought in her mind, using it to bolster her courage. Stepping away from the wall, she tried to pull herself back together. She looked up to meet the human's - Dean's - eyes. This time, she could see no danger in them, only hope and trust, in her and in his brother.

Unsteadily, she walked toward him. She quashed her fears as much as she could.

_I can do this... for all of us._

* * *

Dean watched his brother work his magic on the tiny little fairy girl. He had to hand it to the kid, Sammy was silky smooth when it came to convincing anyone to trust them. He just pulled out those puppy dog eyes and let them work their magic. Dean never had that kind of luck. Even when he tried to save lives, the people he was saving would believe he was threatening them half the time. He could never figure that one out when all he was trying to do was help. On the other hand, Sam had the whole 'sharing and caring' thing down to a science.

It was awkward, listening in on them like this. He kept wanting to shift position to get more comfortable, but was worried he'd make the girl freak out even more if he moved. From the sound of things, she'd been put through a lot. He couldn't find it in himself to blame her for being so afraid of him. On the other hand, he couldn't help a glower from crossing his face when he heard Sam compare him to Godzilla. It wasn't his fault everyone else here was from Lilliput!

He could see the frost melting from her when she and Sam embraced. Dean's eyebrows went skyward with surprise. His brother was _hitting_ on a fairy! _Good for you, Sammy._ After the embrace, the tiny girl looked up at Dean. He could still see fear in the way she looked at him, but it was fading. He gently lowered his hand to the ground next to Warren, hopefully far enough away from Tenanye to avoid scaring her again. He flattened his knuckles against the hardwood floor as flat as they could go.

She walked slowly up to his hand. Dean found himself holding his breath for fear he'd knock her over. She was so much smaller and slimmer than either Sam or Warren, she seemed as fragile as a baby bird. He had trouble trusting even himself with something so delicate.

He couldn't help but think to himself it was a good thing Sam had lost his memories from that case involving the watchmaker and the fairies. Dean hadn't gotten off on the right foot with any of the fairies then. And throwing the Tink in the microwave had just topped it all off. If Sam had remembered anything from that day, he probably wouldn't have let his big brother anywhere near Tenanye.

She glanced quickly up at him before climbing onto his hand. "G-good to meet you, D-Dean." Her small voice wavered as she spoke. Her tiny steps onto his palm tickled and Dean had to focus hard on not flinching and knocking her over.

He raised her carefully up to his face once she was settled so he could see her better. He felt a pang of dismay when he saw she was still glancing fearfully up at him. Softly as he could, he said, "Good to meet you too, Ten. Heard you took good care of my little brother earlier." He gave her his most charming smile that always got the ladies. She relaxed somewhat, tiny shoulders loosening up.

She smiled up at him. "I'm sorry I took him from you, now that I know you're his brother. But I could never leave someone in harm’s way when I can help them."

Dean had to hide a smile at this. "You sound like a few people I know." He glanced over to where Akar was still glaring at them with the chain preventing him from talking. "So, you ready to give this guy what he deserves?"

She lit up at the thought. "Oh, you have no idea how long I've been waiting for this!"

"Alright, well hold on then." Dean pulled himself to his feet. He felt her tiny hands clutch his thumb for support when he moved. He pulled his hand up against his chest so she'd have more support when he moved, remembering how he’d almost tossed Sam off that way. It was a good thing he did so, too. When he took his first step, she lost her balance and tumbled over, her tiny form landing against his chest. Dean brought his other hand up, cupping it around the first gently so she wouldn't be in danger of falling off.

After the first step, the tiny girl stayed sitting in the cave his hands formed until Dean reached the table. He pulled his free hand away from his body and flipped the fairy tome open to the spell Warren had pointed out. Pursing his lips, he looked over the script he couldn't read. "So, you can read this like Warren could, right?"

She glanced over her shoulder up at him. "Of course I can!" Pushing herself away from his chest, she walked over to the edge of his hand and peered over. "Can you move a little closer?" The tiny girl called up to him.

"Yeah, of course." Dean took a cautious step so she was now held directly over the book.

"Did Warren tell you what you need to do while I do the chant?" She called over her shoulder.

"Yeah, just gotta bleed this bastard for some blood and we'll be good to go." Quickly, Dean pulled a dagger from his jacket and turned to Akar, holding the hand she was standing on back against his chest for stability.

Akar's eyes were bloodshot now, the burn from the iron now extending across most of his face. Dean glared at him. "This is for all the lives you've ruined over the years," he growled, drawing the blade across Akar's arm, letting the blood drip onto the blade. Akar's only reaction was a choked snarl.

Once ready, Dean turned back to the altar. He gathered up the rest of the ingredients, placing them into the bowl together, then held the blade over it all and allowing the blood to drip into the center of it all. He held the hand Ten was standing on over it all, and she began to chant.

For a few moments there was no reaction to her words. It felt like the calm before the storm - a little too much nothing happening. Dean heard the phrase Warren had told him to wait for and he lit the ingredients in the bowl with his lighter. Fire flared up, far more powerful and bright than what should have been possible from what was in the bowl. And then he saw that Tenanye was changing.

It started slowly at first, almost unnoticeable. A blue glow lit her hand, soft and gentle. It slowly began to grow in radiance, more and more. Right when Dean thought it couldn't get any brighter, the glow shifted from her hand, extending down both sides of the staff. The fire in the altar sparked, changing from orange to an electric blue. The light from the staff started to throb, and Tenanye herself began to glow in response. She burned even brighter, throbbing with the fire, her chanting growing louder and filling the basement. She started to float up from Dean's hand, higher and higher into the air.

Shocked, Dean looked around the room in surprise. Everything was starting to change with the soft glow coming from the tiny fairy. Akar was now glowing with the same vibrancy as Tenanye. As her power grew, his waned. His face grew wrinkles where there had been none moments before, his own life force sapping from him. Next to Sam, Warren had also started to glow, a forest green hue emanating from him. Joy itself was etched on his face.

Tenanye had now floated high enough to where she was now even with Dean's face. His hand that he'd been holding her with dropped from under her and he took a cautious step back. The glow around her had brightened so much he had to shield his eyes. The words of the chant shifted to a music that the air itself became imbued with. With all of the magic taken from him and his spells reversed, Akar's 900 year old body had crumbled to dust, the chains around him falling into a pile of ashes. The glow around Ten separated into two incandescent orbs. One of them started to expand, growing quickly and blanketing the entire table. Within the other orb, Dean could barely make out Ten's tiny figure, arms outstretched and coruscating wings now covering her back.

At that moment, he realized that she and her brother weren't the only fairies in the room now. Other orbs had gathered at the perimeter of the room, in a multitude of colors. Red, blue, yellow, purple... more and more colors every moment. It seemed as though they were waiting for something. Dean looked over where he'd left Sam and Warren, and was shocked to see his brother standing there full sized, with a green incandescent glow floating over his shoulder.

Sam grinned back at his brother, walking over to the table with the green orb following close behind. Dean clapped his hand on Sam's shoulder. "Good to have you back, gigantor."

"Good to be back to looking down atcha, shorty." Sam snarked.

During their distraction, the glow over the table had transformed into a portal looking out over a lush forest, with gems sparkling over the landscape in all directions. A city rose in the distance, but instead of the steel grey Dean had become used to, each building was constructed of different gems, giving the vista the look of stained glass. Sunlight was caught and reflected, shattered into a million colors.

Once the image stabilized, the tiny balls of color started to shoot through, returning to the home they'd lost. Dean ducked as they whizzed by him only inches away. Others shot down the stairwell from upstairs. Within moments, it was only him and Sam standing in the basement with Tenanye and Warren floating nearby.

The little blue ball that Tenanye had become flitted over to Sam, tiny wings brushing against his cheek. Sam froze, not wanting to scare her off. He and Dean could hear her say, "Maybe I'll see you one day again, in another life." She grazed his lips with her body, a fairy's kiss, before whisking back. Sam gently reached up to her, slowly enough to not scare her off. Softly, he stroked her tiny arm with a fingertip, smiling sadly. His finger alone was longer than her whole body now, wings included. Carefully he wrapped his hand around her, wanting nothing more than to hold her one last time. It was so much larger than her she was almost fully enveloped, surrounded on all sides. She tensed at first, fear flashing across her face, but in the end she relaxed into his hand, giving him her trust.

"I hope so," he said quietly, gently stroking her form with a finger. She was so tiny, so soft, it was unreal. "Thank you, Ten... for everything." He lowered his hand from her slowly, setting her free.

She twirled around Sam's head one last time before flitting briefly in front of Dean. He could barely make her out, the glow was so bright. "Thanks for everything. We will always be in your debt." Her wings caressed his cheek fleetingly. "If only more humans were like the two of you."

The glow that was Warren zipped around the two hunters quickly, circling them both joyfully. Dean felt him breeze by close to his ear. He came to a halt when he reached his sister. The two of them merged into one brilliant sea green orb before turning from the two brothers and zipping through the portal together. The glow faded from the room slowly, the portal dispersing as it closed, leaving the brothers standing in the dim glow of the lamplight, speechless. The fairy tome had vanished as well, most likely taken for safekeeping.

The shock slowly wore off from Dean and he turned to Sam. "Thank God you're alright." He wrapped Sam in a tight hug. "I can't lose you again. Not after all it took to get you back in one piece."

Sam pushed out of the hug. "I know," he said, meeting Dean in the eyes. For a moment the brothers stood there, taking it all in. Then Sam reached into his pocket, pulling out something that hadn't been there before. "I'll be damned," he said, shock overlaying his words.

In his hand sat a perfect sapphire, etched with an image of two fairies darting amongst the trees. Though he couldn't make out their faces, he knew in his heart it was Ten and Warren.

Even Dean looked impressed. "Talk about a going away present."

Smiling, Sam tucked the gem into his pocket. "Let's make sure everyone upstairs is ok and get them back to town."

Dean smiled and gestured toward the stairs. "Ladies first." He arched his eyebrows. Sam just rolled his eyes at the awful joke and went up to the kitchen.

* * *

Later that night, Sam and Dean were sitting in the Impala. They'd checked out of the hotel after taking the victims to their homes. The people had been understandably shell shocked after all they'd been put through by Akar. Most of the memories of their time fairy sized had faded away, something Sam thought Ten must have done when she cast the spell. The most they might have to deal with in the future was a bad nightmare on occasion.

Sam's memories were fully intact, which he was happy for. He didn't want to ever forget about Ten or her brother. He found himself wishing that she could have stayed, or that he could have gone with her. Such feelings were fleeting though. They would fade quickly enough. And all he would have left of her was the memories. And the sapphire. As much as it might be worth, he knew he would never willingly part with it.

Dean glanced over at Sam. "So, how you feeling, Tom Thumb?"

"Ha-ha, very funny." Sam sent a glare his brother's way. "That one is NOT sticking."

"That's what you think." Dean gave Sam a smirk before starting up the Impala. "Oh, and by the way, you've still got pocket hair."

Sam's hands automatically went to his hair, trying to flatten down the flyaways. He sent his most menacing bitchface Dean's way.

"Jerk."

"Bitch."

The Impala rumbled off into the night.

**FIN**


End file.
